Url looks suss. Seems kinda sophisticated for the usual ups fishing scam. Here’s the text message I got leading here.
“Wishing you a bright and sunny day!” Lol, I almost want to help this guy by explaining that UPS and American companies in general have disdain for their customers and would never wish them to have anything that would not benefit the company.
your first clue was the link in the next - no shipper is going to miss having its branding in the url. the second if that the url it redirects to its obviously random bs and if you do a whois you see its def not owned by usps.
got a few of these phishing attempts myself over thanksgiving. holiday gift shopping season has begun, the scammers want to catch the less savy among us.
You clicked a random link from an sms message?
That’s a bold move, Cotton.
PSA you can check a bitly link without clicking it by using their link checker: https://support.bitly.com/hc/en-us/p/link-checker
TIL, ty
I think there’s now a generation gap between kids today and people who were routinely sent to tubgirl and goatse during the internet’s formal years.
If your URL is fucky, it’s a scam. If you clicked one, they’ll send you more.
Our parents couldn’t use computers properly, and now our kids can’t use them properly either.
That being said, I learned the hard way back in the golden age many, many times.
The good old days of Azureus and Limewire
Yeah, scam. Ibthough that would be obvious, but if it’s not: that is a scam, and there are many like it
This is 10000% a scam. That’s not the USPS url scheme. Plus, as a government entity, they’ll start correspondence through certified mail. Another question you could ask yourself is “Did I order any packages lately?” IF not, then more proof it’s a scam.
I get emails from usps all the time, they have a service to alert you of mail and packages arriving. Though, they dont SMS, and wouldnt be using a bit.ly url.
- 3rd party URL shortener, immediate red flag
- Non-USPS.com domain once you tapped it (which you shouldn’t have)
- National service sending from a South Carolina area code instead of a short code or a toll free number
- Does USPS even have your phone number tied to your delivery address?
That also doesn’t look anything like a USPS tracking number (which, if this were real, you’d probably already have). Pro-tip: USPS has “informed delivery” where they’ll send you an email every day with scans of your mail and any packages on their way to you. Which would give you another way to know that this isn’t real.
How could you read that text and then click on link?
Yes, and usps is never going to text you. Be careful about what links you click. This link could have passed through tracking and flagged your number as someone who clicks their links. At the very least they know it’s an active phone number, and at worst they start targeting you more frequently (or sell a list to other people to target you).
This is why you shouldn’t ever respond, click on, interact with, or even read scam messages. Same goes for emails btw. Disable auto-loading images in emails since that is another way they can track active emails.
But, good job second guessing the message and asking about it. I mean it. Some scams rely on you not talking to anyone so it is good to ask others if you’re unsure/uncomfortable. This is especially true if someone tries to tell you not to talk to anyone else since that is a common practice scammers use as well and should be an instant red flag
usps is never going to text you.
Yes, though they might send you emails if you sign up for Informed Delivery: https://www.usps.com/manage/informed-delivery.htm
I’ve never used it, but it sounds like a great way to clear this up.
usps is never going to text you.
USPS will text you, but only for packages you explicitly request SMS tracking messages for, those texts will never contain a link to a website, and they will always come from a 6-digit short code, not a full phone number
How could you not? Do you buy things so often that that happens a lot? Ignoring the grammatical error of in instead of on, are you actually expecting a package with that numberwhich is not a typical USPS tracking number
It is a scam.
I’ve recieved similar texts from Amaz0n.
Not kidding about the 0 instead of an o.
The also use the ‘Wishing you a bright and sunny day!’ line.
…
The url is bullshit, and nobody, literally no legit mail or pacel service is going to use bit.ly.
100% yeah. The browser URL doesn’t have ups in it.
Ups is not usps
An official company is not going to use an URL shortener.
That’s only used when you try to hide the URL, or if you think the user is going to type it out manually.
Kek you clicked that?
Look man, if you want to understand what’s going on there’s a really short (even for my ADHD) video right here:
The guy here explains exactly why not to do that - https://bitly.com/98K8eH
You laugh at someone clicking it then paste a URL shortener link…
The joke is always better when someone explains it.
I don’t even need to click taht to know his initials are R.A. :-)
100% chance you ordered from temu or ali express and got this message while waiting for a package right?
They sell your order info along to scammers who time these right around when you’re expecting your order.
Pretty clever! Definitely a scam!