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The coronavirus pandemic has created immense opportunities for scammers. A popular scam is the Courier or Delivery Scam which is thriving due to the gullibility of shoppers. The scam generally involves taking money from customers under the guise of a failed delivery, or a threat of customs check for discreet packages.
We will explore two different ways delivery scams are currently working. For the first kind, the scam generally begins with an unsolicited email about a missed delivery. If you try to reply saying you did not place any order, the scammer would try to convince you it is a gift from a friend or relative.
The goal here is to obtain personal information, for example, the scammer may ask for bank or credit card information to attempt another delivery. A sophisticated scammer may even send a link which could install malware or ransomware on your system, giving access to your files and passwords. In most cases, the package doesn’t even exist.
There have been several reports of delivery scams in the past year and CNBC reports that fraud delivery scams under the name of established brands had surged during the holiday season last year. The US Federal Trade Commission too published a report a few years ago on phoney delivery scams which you can check here.
Now, let’s look at the other aspect of delivery scams related to shopping sites. The scam begins with a consumer shopping online, usually on a fake website. After the consumer buys the product, they would get a message from some delivery company about a payment to skip customs check or faster delivery.
Here is what a message may look like:
Accept greetings from ELITE EXPRESS DELIVERY
Thank you for choosing ELITE EXPRESS DELIVERY
We write to inform
You of the good news we have, after the creation of your discreet account to ship discreetly with our agency, you’ll not have to create it again. You’ll use this discreet account for your subsequent shipments via our agency.
To recall you, your shipment was scheduled for days delivery and right now your package has successfully reached Poland.From the Airport delivery will proceed to your address.Your package requires 3 custom stamps so that it could be discharged from the warehouse. By acquiring these stamps your package will not have to go through custom checks since it was shipped as discreet otherwise your package will be scanned and the content will become known to the customs
Each custom stamp cost = $130
Three stamps will cost $130*3=$390
You need to acquire these stamps so that your delivery can be completed as scheduled .
NB: “THIS FEE WILL BE REFUNDED AFTER YOU GET YOUR PACKAGE BY OUR COMPANY”. So the sum of $360 will be refunded to you upon delivery by our agents.
‼ ATTENTION ‼
FAILURE TO COMPLY WILL LEAD TO CUSTOM CHECK TO VERIFY THE PACKAGE CONTENT.
Customer Desk:
Thanks for using our services.
Delivery Manager.
Mr.JAMES
We found another user on Reddit who was asked to pay extra money for getting a product delivered. Here is what he wrote:
One thing is clear based on the above posts that the scammers are feeding on the fear of consumers after they requested discreet delivery. It is very likely the scammer is using a common technique called “bait and switch” – where they first take money with the promise of delivering a product or service and then demanding more money posing as a shipper.
Scammers generally create such fake delivery and courier websites to convince users that their product will be delivered, and send a fake tracking number. Then, some issue such as the customs check or clearing would arise and more money is demanded for the package to be released.
In the case of the Reddit user above who ordered a prohibited item, he ended up paying the money. Discreet delivery means the consumer wants to hide the contents, and the fear of exposure generally leads to users paying up.
However, in most cases the item does not exist so there are few chances of a real problem in case the user refuses to pay money. Revisiting the first method of scam where a ransomware or malware is installed, the scammer may ask for BTC payment, and failure to do so may result in loss of files or identity theft.
In most cases of delivery scam, a package does not exist at all. The Better Business Bureau has published a few guidelines on how to avoid such a scam:
Let us look at the delivery company Elite Express Delivery. We were able to narrow down the website URL through a simple Google search. Surprisingly we also found several legitimate courier companies with similar names and one refrigeration firm with the same name.
We found another reference to Elite Express Delivery from a user who had bought marijuana online in the UK. This is what he said:
Next, we checked the About Us section of Elite Express Delivery and found over 200 other sites using the same text. All provide delivery and courier services. Here is an example.
As you can see, the page design and text are very similar and it is likely these are copycat sites and thus highly likely to be a scam.
Next we checked the supposed staff of the company. George Quick is the CEO and a board member. A quick search returned interesting results. We found the same person to be a CEO and board members of other delivery companies located elsewhere.
How can the same person be a CEO and board member of several delivery companies? Firstly, it would conflict with competition laws of countries. Secondly, if it is a group company, there is no mention of it. This cements our doubts even further. It appears that all these sites have been created using the same template.
We compiled a list of the suspected websites and ran it through our Scamadviser Analyser. The results were quite interesting.
Almost all of these websites have an average review score of zero. That means they don’t have any reviews on platforms such as TrustPilot or SiteJabber. This supports our theory that scam shopping websites are using these sites to convince users of delivery.
Secondly several of the sites are registered in Panama and the US. Panama is notorious for fake shell companies, as well as being the default location shown in most cases when domain registration details are hidden using a paid service. Meanwhile, the Alexa ranking of these websites is non-existent in most cases, and the ones having a ranking are very low in popularity.
While this is not a strong metric, several other websites have the same area IP codes, and have been registered only days apart. Our Scamadviser Analyser gives an average Trust Score of 65 out of 100 for all the websites.
And last but not the least, a majority of the sites have hidden the registrant name, which is suspicious as legitimate delivery companies would want to furnish details about their owner and operations.
Apart from the “Nigerian Prince” and other “419 scams”, delivery scams have also become a popular way to part people of their money. Based on our research, news reports and warning from consumer forums, such scams take hold around holidays and shopping seasons such as Christmas and Thanksgiving.
More than often a product does not exist, and the scammer will try to extort money by creating new problems such as customs checks, missed deliveries, express delivery etc. until the user realises that they are being defrauded.
During this pandemic, online shopping has become more of a necessity rather than an option. It is open season for fraudsters and scammers due to this.
Moreover, there is no way to blacklist specific delivery sites as shopping scammers may use different courier links to convince consumers of delivery. These copycat sites are strewn across the internet, and we were just able to identify only a handful of them.
Interpol Report : 5 Reasons Non Delivery Scams Work
Glass Industry Body Newsletter
Dedicated Delivery Scams Webpage
List of possible courier delivery scam websites:
This article has been written by a scam fighter volunteer. If you believe the article above contains inaccuracies or is missing relevant information, please contact Scamadviser.com using this form.
