Australia Post Scams Circulating Just in Time for Black Friday Sales

The holiday season is upon us, and cybercriminals are making the most of the anticipation of consumers who are eagerly awaiting orders, with parcel delivery scams that are designed to steal your credentials. MailGuard is currently intercepting multiple fraudulent phishing emails, claiming to be from Australia Post.

With Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales fast approaching, it’s prime time for scammers to trick unsuspecting victims, individuals and businesses, into clicking on malicious links with the flurry of online activity coupled with the urgency of receiving and delivering parcels acting as a distraction. Recipients are advised to be vigilant before opening any emails pertaining to deliveries, particularly one’s that you may not be expecting or that require a fee, or urgent action.

Here are examples of some of the AusPost emails that are currently circulating:

The email below is particularly confusing for time-poor business owners who rely on Australia Post to deliver customer packages.

Scammers have gone into great detail to include order numbers and mimicking Australia Posts branding to try and lure victims into clicking on the links within the emails. Upon closer inspection, however, there are a few obvious red flags that reveal the inauthenticity of the emails, such as mismatched email addresses attached to the ‘Aust Post Centre’ and ‘Australia Post’ sender names, as well as grammatical errors present in the subject line and body.

Clicking on the links within the email will take victims to the following page, requesting credit card details.

Once these details have been submitted, and scammers have harvested the credit card details to use in later criminal activity such as financial fraud, users are taken to the next page asking for an SMS verification code.

If you suspect that you have received a scam email pretending to be from Australia Post, the postal service suggests forwarding it to scams@auspost.com.au. More details can be found on their Online Security page here: https://auspost.com.au/about-us/about-our-site/online-security-scams-fraud. 

MailGuard urges all recipients of this email to delete it immediately without clicking on any links. Providing your personal details can result in your sensitive information being used for criminal activity and may have a severe negative impact on your business and its’ financial well-being.  

One email is all that it takes. 

All that it takes to devastate your business is a cleverly worded email message that can steal sensitive user credentials or disrupt your business operations. If scammers can trick one person in your company into clicking on a malicious link or attachment, they can gain access to your data or inflict damage on your business.    

MailGuard urges users not to click links or open attachments within emails that:    

• Are not addressed to you by name.    
• Appear to be from a legitimate company but use poor English, or omit personal details that a legitimate sender would include.    
• Are from businesses that you were not expecting to hear from, and/or    
• Take you to a landing page or website that is not the legitimate URL of the company the email is purporting to be sent from.    
  

One email is all that it takes    

All that it takes to devastate your business is a cleverly worded email message that can steal sensitive user credentials or disrupt your business operations. If scammers can trick one person in your company into clicking on a malicious link or attachment, they can gain access to your data or inflict damage on your business.    

For a few dollars per staff member per month, you can protect your business with MailGuard's predictive and advanced email security. Talk to a solution consultant at MailGuard today about securing your company's inboxes. 

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