WARNING!

[Bonzo]

Some time ago I purchased a pair of Z3 front mudflaps from Roadster Solutions across the pond. They came via USPC.and are a good piece of kit. Yesterday I received an email with the USPC eagle logo saying a parcel would be delivered in the next 7 days and to click on a link to download the parcel tracker. Thinking they may have doubled up on my order I did just that today, but my computer wouldn't let the download happen. I googled the USPC website end clicked on their tracker link which produced a warning. A hacker is sending out official looking emails inviting you to download the parcel tracker, and if you do so it introduces a virus and steals all your passwords and does other stuff! Nasty. Hope none of you have come a cropper.

Bonzo.

[Robert T]

I get a lot of such emails purportedly from DHL and UPS, which still seem to get through my spam filter. I use Thunderbird and it has a "View Message Source" option which lets me open the email as plain text so that I can check the To and From fields and look at any hyperlinks to see if they are genuine (they tend to display the real address as text, but the link will take you to a .cn website or somesuch). Even if you have opened an email, if you hover the mouse over any links, you should be able to see where they are going to take you before clicking on them. I don't know of any parcel delivery companies that need you to install anything to track parcels, so the likelihood is that any emails that ask you to do so are false. Also if you get any notifications like this with a ZIP file attached, then don't open it, as it almost certainly contains some kind of virus/trojan.

In your respect it sounds like it was just coincidence that you had just had dealings with this company. I take it that there was nothing personalized in the body of the email?

Cheers R.

[Southernboy]

When buying stuff on the net, I always insist the seller emails me the tracking number irrespective of whether he uses USPS or a courier Co. I also only check progress by logging in to the official Postal service or the official courier website. They have thier tracking services there. I have never had a "notification" to check on my item.

[Robert T]

I recently had several automated emails from DPD on behalf of New Car Parts Ltd (the trading name of BM Mini Parts), with a link to allow me to reschedule delivery. The emails contained my postal address, so it was clear they were genuine. So I would say it is reasonably common to get real notification messages like this as well as false ones.

Cheers R.

[LookinFoolish]

Happens often. Often the email wont include your name, it'll say: Dear Sir or something similar. If it's your name, there's more chance of it being real, but it doesn't hurt to play safe. Alot of scammers out there these days

[Inferno]

i am posting here, i don't know if i should open a new thread or whatever, does anybody had any good or bad experiences with DPD courier? i paid 50€ shipping costs from Germany to Greece, the item is coming via road transfer, and for 3 days now i am entering the tracking number to their website, and it says it's not working (like it's not registered yet)

[bertiejaffa]

They have been the couriers for all the tyres I have ever bought (not chosen by me; chosen by the tyre supplier). I have in the past found their website to be flaky when looking at the status of the tyre delivery, however the tyres have always been delivered on time and left with neighbours etc when I'm not in so they are ok, just need to hire some IT people I think

[Inferno]

They have been the couriers for all the tyres I have ever bought (not chosen by me; chosen by the tyre supplier). I have in the past found their website to be flaky when looking at the status of the tyre delivery, however the tyres have always been delivered on time and left with neighbours etc when I'm not in so they are ok, just need to hire some IT people I think

ok thank you, i am relaxed now

[c_w]

DPD are very good in my experience.

[Inferno]

I called them earlier today in their HQ in Holland, the seller gave me a wrong tracking number, it was missing a digit, parcel is in Budapest right now

[lordhelpus]

Look out for emails from Paypal as well guys if you have ever bought anything from fleabay, etc etc that uses paypal lots of phishing emails supposedly from paypal asking you to update your account details.......I got one and sent it on to paypal's scammer team....they got back instantly and said they never use your email address to contact you.......... They only contact you through your paypal account.

if you get one report it...and don't open any attachments with it.

[littlefeller]

i get them from dhl, Parcelforce and also paypal. to be fair some folk would unwittingly open and down load content without realising what these emails are, if they didn't then we wouldn't get them as they wouldn't work. its a very easy mistake to make
the funniest one I got was a message on my screen saying I had been downloading dodgy images and content, this warning occupied the whole screen and covered up anything on the desktop, it demanded money to remove. if someone had a shared computer you can easily see how this could work.