Be careful if you have received an SMS informing you of a logistical error preventing the delivery of a package! This is a phishing campaign intended to scam you by collecting personal data. Classic, but very effective!
Online savings and credits, false unpaid fine, retirement, Netflix, vital card, taxes… The scammers use all the means and all the possible reasons when it comes to extracting your money! And for that, they love to send fraudulent SMS or emails to their potential victims, even if the anti-spam filter was deployed in May 2023 (see our article). According Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr, phishing represents “the No. 1 threat for all audiences”. And it’s not about to stop! As reported France Infothe Hérault gendarmes published a warning message on Facebook this Sunday, June 25 informing of an upsurge by SMS – it’s du smishing, a word that results from the contraction of the terms SMS and phishing – from a well-known, but devilishly effective scam: the logistics problem of parcels. Obviously, this is actually a way to extract your personal and banking information, and the package does not exist. But, you never know, you may be waiting for your last Amazon order and you may fall for it!
Parcel problem: a logistical error that should not be corrected
The SMS is in the form of a message “Chronopost: your package has suffered a logistical error. Please confirm your information” followed by a fraudulent link. If you click on it, you are redirected to a page in the colors of the transport service in question. This then asks you to enter your personal and banking information which will be used to pay the alleged delivery costs. Except that, via this form, all your data is directly transmitted to the hackers. Once the precious personal data is in their pocket, hackers will be able to sell your information on the Dark Web, but also to develop much more elaborate phishing campaigns. Sometimes they will even call you pretending to be your bank adviser – this is called vishing – and alert you that alleged fraudulent transactions are being made with your bank card. In addition, on the fraudulent site, they can extract your banking information by asking you to pay a postage request.
Parcel scam phishing is rampant all year round, but there are occasional peaks in activity, especially around Christmas time, when everyone is ordering their gifts, or during Black Friday. AT Note that there are other variants of the logistical error package scam, such as text messages stating that the package is “ready to be delivered” or asking that you reschedule its delivery because it has not been -saying could not be delivered to recipient.
Parcel scam: the right things to do
To avoid being tricked, keep in mind that delivery companies never ask you to pay by SMS to be able to receive a package intended for you. If in doubt, you can go directly to the organization’s website, without going through the link in the SMS. Be careful, this type of message can also be used to install malware on your smartphone. In any case, take your time and do not act in a hurry, this is what cybercriminals are looking for.
If you are ever the target of an online or SMS scam, immediately forward the message to Signal Spam, Pharosor directly to 33,700, the platform specializing in reporting scams. You can also report these fraudulent messages to the site internet-signalement.gouv.fr. Then block the sender’s number so that you are no longer bothered and delete the message in question. If necessary, you can also consult the website www.cybermalveillance.gouv.fr, which will remind you of the main precautionary measures to adopt in the face of fraudulent SMS. Finally, the Hérault gendarmes indicate in their Facebook post that you can always “forward the message to your mother-in-law to give her something to take care of (it’s not very nice!)”. It’s a solution like any other!