What to do when you receive a suspicious message from the Post Office about receiving a package

So many citizens complained that they received a false message from the Post Office about the receipt of a package that the authorities decided to find a way to stop the fraudsters. Carefully listen to the advice and pay attention to what can be suspicious even in messages that supposedly come to you from verified addresses.

Serbian Post: “Your package has arrived at the warehouse and cannot be delivered due to incomplete address information. Please confirm your address on the following link.”

Recently, citizens often receive this kind of message. The Serbian Post says they will never ask users for additional data in this way.

Bojana Nikolić, director of the services function at “Post of Serbia” told RTS that the Post informs all users not to fall for such messages, to delete them, not to open them and not to communicate with someone who is not the official Post page, i.e. if the senders are from some other countries.

“We usually inform our users that their parcels have arrived, that we leave the contact phone number of the courier, that is, the postman who will bring the parcel,” said Nikolićeva.

Luka Milinković, an expert in information security, said that a colleague from work told him that he had received a message and was about to pay.

“I know IT, but it was strange to me why in euros and the link was strange to me, but I was actually waiting for a package that was late.” Even a person who is an expert thought about it, but still noticed these other signals and realized that it was a scam.

The most common examples of fraud

On the official website of the Post of Serbia, you can see the most common examples of such scams, with detailed instructions on how to recognize them and protect yourself.

The user is generally required to pay certain costs. When you click on the link in the message, an internet page opens where the user is asked to enter his bank card number in the corresponding fields.

Considering that such messages reach citizens almost all year round, and not only on the eve of the New Year’s holidays, when most expect a package, the Post of Serbia has created an application through which anyone expecting a parcel can now track how far it has arrived. The application has been downloaded by 30,000 citizens so far.

“The new mobile application, which is completely free, and which citizens can download from both the IOS and Android platforms, provides greater security and safety to users, because in the future practically all messages will be received via the mobile application, through the notification that the shipment has arrived and that practically, we avoid that segment of fraudulent activities,” says Nikolićeva.

Urgent calls, spelling mistakes are frequent signs of fraud, and experts warn that special attention should be paid to the content of the link in the message.

“Citizens should first think about whether they really ordered something from the Post Office, if so, then check through the official application of the Post Office, or through the official website of the Post Office, what exactly it is about, how far the package has arrived on the one hand. On the other hand, if they see that link, if it is a random layout and the name of the Post Office is not found in it, they should not pay attention at all and not click,” said Milinković.

The target of this kind of fraud can be all mobile phone users. Cybercriminals get the numbers most often by hacking the data of a particular company. If you receive an email with suspicious content, delete it.

If you accidentally opened a link, or an attachment, inform your bank about it, and then report it to the Prosecutor’s Office or the Ministry of Interior’s high-tech crime department, experts say.