Possible An Post Address Pal text scam?

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odyssey06

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I use the An Post Address Pal service to ship items from the US to here. Have used it a few times and it is slow, but generally reliable.

On Thursday I received notification from Amazon that my package had been delivered to the Address Pal depot in New Jersey.

Coincidentally, in the next 36 hours, I received several scam texts from different numbers along the lines of Irish Revenue, customs charge applicable to your An Post delivery, and a link to a website that obviously wasn't the legit An Post or Address Pal site - so I didn't bite.

Today I got the expected email from Address Pal confirming delivery of the parcel and commencing process to send on to me in Ireland.

I was wondering if other people got that text over the last week, or was I targeted somehow?
 
I got three of those last week, nothing in the three weeks prior, and four the week before that. Lots of different groups sending these now, they just hope to get lucky timing one to catch someone who is expecting a package.
 
Ok, thanks for the info.

So sounds like it was a random trawl, and just coincidence I started getting them after the item was delivered.
 
Hi odyssey

They send out thousands of such scam emails.

Chance alone will result in a few people who are expecting a communication from An Post getting these emails.

It has happened me a few times where I got an email I was expecting and the guard is lowered. It took a few minutes to realise it was a scam.

Brendan
 
Expect to see this type of scam attempt increase around events like Black Friday, Prime day etc... and the run up to Christmas.
 
i might get nothing from an post for months , then i get a item from an post address pal, pay the customs charge couple days later items arrive great ,
couple days to a week later i get this the above scam notification saying i owe custom charges
is address pal hacked ,this happens every time i get item from address pal .no way this is a coincidence
 
johnwilliams said:
i might get nothing from an post for months , then i get a item from an post address pal, pay the customs charge couple days later items arrive great ,
couple days to a week later i get this the above scam notification saying i owe custom charges
is address pal hacked ,this happens every time i get item from address pal .no way this is a coincidence
Click to expand...
Maybe report it to them?


www.anpost.com

Be aware of scam text messages

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www.anpost.com www.anpost.com

As long as you never click on the links in such scam messages and always manually go to the legitimate website there shouldn't be a problem other than the irritation of receiving scam messages.
 
clubman i did report it to them
told them i knew it was a scam and they just said back to me it was a scam
but didnt address the fact that i only got this scam e mail when i had already got the package and only when i dealt with address pal and at no other time
i refer you back to my above post
 
johnwilliams said:
i might get nothing from an post for months , then i get a item from an post address pal, pay the customs charge couple days later items arrive great ,
couple days to a week later i get this the above scam notification saying i owe custom charges
is address pal hacked ,this happens every time i get item from address pal .no way this is a coincidence
Click to expand...
No, the optimal time to attempt such a scam is in the short window between the item being shipped and you receiving it. Delivery just won't happen until any pending customs charges are paid, so it makes no sense for someone with access to their system to send such messages after the item was delivered.
 
leo that what you would think ok ,but i still get this scam e mail after i received the item ,they seem to run into some sort of delay when they send the e mail ?
 
johnwilliams said:
leo that what you would think ok ,but i still get this scam e mail after i received the item ,they seem to run into some sort of delay when they send the e mail ?
Click to expand...
No, it's just coincidence, they just send so many that some percentage of them coincide with real events. It's that coincidence that makes so many fall for these scams. As I said, the genuine ones are always sent prior to delivery, if the scammers had so much access why would they wait?

There are very serious penalties for failure to disclose breaches and GDRP offences, and it's highly unlikely someone could be inside their network for so long harvesting this data without getting noticed or trying a far more lucrative ransomware attack.
 
Ok, so I just got the same scam text today with no address pal order on the go. Bizarrely I had put stuff into my Amazon US basket but didn't put through the order. Had I done so, I would have gotten really paranoid.

But it was just the universe of coincidences messing with me.
 
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