Scam texts from ‘USPS Delivery Team’ continue to target personal information

(WISH) — With the increased deliveries to homes during the recent holidays, people saw a recurring scam involving text messages that appear to be from the U.S. Postal Service.

The Postal Serivce in June first warned about the texts from “USPS Delivery Team” with a link to seek added information.

“The criminals want to receive personally identifiable information (PII) about the victim such as: account usernames and passwords, Social Security number, date of birth, credit and debit card numbers, personal identification numbers (PINs), or other sensitive information. This information is used to carry out other crimes, such as financial fraud,” the Postal Service said in a June 26 news release.

The Postal Service offers free tools to track specific packages, but customers are required to register online or initiate a text message, and provide a tracking number.

Also, the Postal Services warns, it doesn’t seen texts or emails to customer without that person first requesting the service with a tracking number, and those communications won’t include a link.

Anyone who gets what appears to be a message from the Postage Service should not click the link. “Rather, report it and visit USPS.com from your mobile device or computer for tracking and additional resources,” the release said.

To report bad senders, send an email to spam@uspis.gov using these instructions:

• Without clicking on the web link, copy the body of the suspicious text message and paste into a new email.
• Provide your name in the email, and also attach a screenshot of the text message showing the phone number of the sender and the date sent.
• Include any relevant details in your email, for example: if you clicked the link, if you lost money, if you provided any personal information, or if you experienced any impacts to your credit or person.
• The Postal Inspection Service will contact you if more information is needed.
• Forward the smishing/text message to 7726 (this will assist with reporting the scam phone number).