Beware of potential info phishing scams.
Most of us have an idea of what is being sent to us, so the general rule of thumb is to disregard any e-mail or text if you aren’t expecting something. If it’s valid and important, they’ll send it again. If you are expecting, then the notice should have a tracking number that you recognize; carriers will always reference the package somehow within the notice. Look for the tracking number and check your purchases.
Another quick validation is the e-mail address. It should be from a legitimate domain like usps.com or fedex.com. There are very few instances where a department or team will use a hyphenated domain, so you want to distinguish from billing.ups.com (valid) vs usps-express.com (not valid). Text messages require permission to send, so if you haven’t signed up for them with a carrier, don’t even open them.
As an aside, be extra wary about requests for documentation or payments. These are, for most consumers, handled at origin and destination; if they are being asked for in-transit, then you are most likely importing something valued at over $800 and this shouldn’t be a surprise.
An FTC interactive infographic on fraud by demographic can be read here (from 2018 to 2022).
The original FTC post mentioned on our website can be found here. Please also see below for a list of resources displaying sample scams.
- FedEx "warehouse" pick-up
- UPS real domain but fake link e-mail
- UPS will only text you from MYUPS (69877)