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.
You clicked a random link from an sms message?
That’s a bold move, Cotton.
100% chance you ordered from temu or ali express and got this message while waiting for a package right?
They seek your info along to scammers who time these right around when you’re expecting your order.
Pretty clever! Definitely a scam!
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 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.
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.
Yes
100% yeah. The browser URL doesn’t have ups in it.
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.
- 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?
Even if this is true - which it isn’t - it’s much better to let packages be sent back to the sender than to take responsibility upon yourself.
They give you the package info. Just ignore their email and input that into the USPS address manually. Kind of like the FedEx and UPS scams. You don’t have to use their link to “check the status” of something. Go to the real site, enter number, see fake, ignore!
That number isn’t even anything like a tracking number for USPS.
Then no reason to even question the validity of the original message.
Be careful with this! Sometimes they use real tracking ids!
You can’t trust it even if the package exists.
It’s not about whether the tracking number is legit but whether that tracking number has anything to do with someone’s actual address or a package being sent to them. The status of the tracking number, if legit, should be enough to verify the contents of the original message. In my experience, when the address has been wrong, or input incorrectly, I’ll see some sort of message about difficulty with the address and how it set the address to something or requested information.
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.
Yes. Don’t click on that link, it’s been obscured using an URL shortener
Yes, I get them constantly.
