• The South African Post Office has issued a warning to the public: Beware of a new wave of phishing scams.
• These scams masquerade as official emails from the public postal service, but they are meant to trick users into paying money to cybercriminals.
• Luckily, there are easy methods that can be used to identify if you have received a fake notification from the Post office.

The South African Post Office has issued a warning to the public to beware of a new wave of email scams that mirror official notices. Known as “419 scams,” these emails are meant to convince the receiver to pay money into the accounts of threat actors.

According to a press statement issued by the national postal service, the scam works as follows: An email will randomly land in your inbox stating that a parcel addressed to you is being retained by the Post Office because of outstanding customs fees. A similar wave of scams struck the country in 2021.

This type of email scam is what is known as a phishing attack, a social engineering tactic used by threat actors to trick users into giving them their credentials or money. The fake notices in these emails entice the receiver to click on a link which leads them to a website where they can make a payment to release the fictitious parcel.

Luckily for users, these types of phishing attacks can be easily detected if you know what you’re looking for and the Post Office has laid out a series of key distinctions:

First, check where the email originates from. Emails sent from the server of the SA Post Office originate from “@postoffice.co.za.” The scam emails are sent from different servers.

Second, the fake emails include a parcel number that starts with the letters ZA, which are not generated by the postal service. When cross-checked on the Post Office website, these parcels will not return any results.

Third, the Post Office says it normally sends an SMS instead of an email to notify individuals when a parcel is ready for collection and never requests an EFT or online payment before a parcel is collected. Any request for an electronic payment should be viewed as a scam.

“If there are customs fees payable on a parcel posted from abroad, the client pays the fees when they collect the parcel. The Post Office gives customers the opportunity to check a parcel before they officially take it into possession, and therefore does not require the payment of any fees before the time of collection,” continues the statement.

If you feel that you have received a suspicious email from the postal service, delete it immediately. Users should also engage their critical thinking. If you aren’t expecting any packages and you receive an email to notify you about one, it’s most likely a scam.

The Post Office encourages members of the public with any information about postal crimes to contact its toll-free crime buster hotline on 0800 020 070.

[Image – CC 0 Pixabay]