This email, which purports to be from Australia Post, claims that a dispatch was not delivered to your address because nobody was home.
The email urges you to click a button labelled ‘Get Sending Document” to view information about the delivery. Supposedly, you can print out the information and take it to a post office to collect your parcel.
However, Australia Post did not send the email and clicking the link will not open information about a failed parcel delivery.
Instead, clicking the button opens a website that harbours malware.
The exact nature of this malware can vary. It may be ransomware that locks up your computer’s files and demands that you pay a fee to online criminals for an unlock code. Or it may be designed to steal sensitive login details and other personal information from your computer.
Criminals have repeatedly used fake ‘undelivered parcel’ emails as a means of distributing malware. Similar fake Australia Post emails have been used as a malware vector since at least 2011.
And alternative versions have falsely claimed to be from other high-profile delivery companies including FedEx, USPS, and the Royal Mail.
Be very wary of any email that claims that a parcel delivery failed and that you should click a link or open an attached file to get more information or print a shipping label.
Australia Post will never ask you to click a link or button in an email to print off a label to redeem a package. Australia Post has more information about such scams on its website.
An example of the malware email:
Importance Notice
After considerable thought and with an ache in my heart, I have decided that the time has come to close down the Hoax-Slayer website.These days, the site does not generate enough revenue to cover expenses, and I do not have the financial resources to sustain it going forward.
Moreover, I now work long hours in a full-time and physically taxing job, so maintaining and managing the website and publishing new material has become difficult for me.
And finally, after 18 years of writing about scams and hoaxes, I feel that it is time for me to take my fingers off the keyboard and focus on other projects and pastimes.
When I first started Hoax-Slayer, I never dreamed that I would still be working on the project all these years later or that it would become such an important part of my life. It's been a fantastic and engaging experience and one that I will always treasure.
I hope that my work over the years has helped to make the Internet a little safer and thwarted the activities of at least a few scammers and malicious pranksters.
A Big Thank You
I would also like to thank all of those wonderful people who have supported the project by sharing information from the site, contributing examples of scams and hoaxes, offering suggestions, donating funds, or helping behind the scenes.I would especially like to thank David White for his tireless contribution to the Hoax-Slayer Facebook Page over many years. David's support has been invaluable, and I can not thank him enough.
Closing Date
Hoax-Slayer will still be around for a few weeks while I wind things down. The site will go offline on May 31, 2021. While I will not be publishing any new posts, you can still access existing material on the site until the date of closure.Thank you, one and all!
Brett Christensen,
Hoax-Slayer
