Santa is Delivering Viruses Disguised as a USPS Package Delivery
By Ann LeFlore
@poehere (15126)
French Polynesia
December 3, 2015 1:12am CST
You better watch out, you better not open, or you’ll surely end up crying when this email hits your in box. The first wave of viruses disguised as a package delivery from USPS or UPS started showing up in people’s inboxes. After the second wave went out on the 22nd of November and they are still coming strong. So far I have seen 6 of these in my inbox and I know 7 people who have been getting these voice mail ones.
Last count there was close to 350.000 people hit in a two week period with the new .ccc or .vvv Telsacrypt virus. So far once your data is locked it is locked for good. The people who are delivering these viruses to your email inboxes no longer leave a key behind on your hard drive.
So next time you see an emails that says something like this “DON\T OPEN IT”
- USPS – Your package is available for pickup Parcel 173145820507
- USPS Missed package delivery USPS express service – service notification@usps.com
- USPS Missed package deliver
- FW Invoice – random invoice number
- ADP payrool: account change alert
- ACH notification ADP payroll
- New voice mail
- Voice mail from unknown 675-685-3476 or some other number
You can also receive payment overdue notices, new contract information, payroll invoice, US Bank notices and endpoint virus protection from Symantec.
These guys make the emails look read but they aren’t. Once you open them the virus is let loose on your computer.
This is the perfect time of the year to send out these notices. But first off consider this. How would USPS or UPS get your email? It isn’t possible nobody ever gave it to them and when you mail a package this isn’t required.
So this holiday season keep your money in your pockets and don’t make these hackers rich. They will hold your computer for ransom and the only way to get it back is to pay them a large sum of money by Bitcoin or some other way they choose.
More information about how to avoid email scams and viruses:
Image source flickr.com creative commons
During the holiday season may people are too busy thinking about everything they need to do to prepare for the family. Most times you are in a rush and forget to be diligent when accessing the web....
18 people like this
18 responses
@Rollo1 (16679)
• Boston, Massachusetts
3 Dec 15
I am signed up with UPS so they do email me with delivery dates. I would never expect one from USPS. They don't even deliver my packages. They never seem to know what they've done with them. If they can't figure out what happened to my package, I don't they would have time to w email me
4 people like this
@silvermist (19702)
• India
3 Dec 15
@poehere Thank you for this information.Will have to be careful.
1 person likes this
@poehere (15126)
• French Polynesia
6 Dec 15
@silvermist Yes it is because she has nobody there that would know how to help her at all. So basically I have already taught her to never open any emails she has no idea what they are or who they came from. I told her that her email address isn't public record and the only way that anyone found this was when she either gave it out or used to to download something.
1 person likes this
@poehere (15126)
• French Polynesia
3 Dec 15
Yes please do. I have spoken with my mom when she sent me a test message asking if I sent her a voice message and why it landed in her inbox. I told her it wasn't me and to delete all of them that come through and don't open a single one of them. So they are coming and it seems different people receive them at different times.
1 person likes this
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
3 Dec 15
The point concerning this virus that I cannot understand is why it has proven difficult for the authorities to catch these senders. We both know that it is easy to set up an email address that cannot be traced by simply registering in a country that only cares about being paid, but these emails demand money.
Despite the fact that even if someone sent the money they would still not get their files released, there has to be a fair number of people who have sent money. Surely any payment from a bank account, credit card or Paypal can be tracked to it's destination.
1 person likes this
@owlwings (43915)
• Cambridge, England
3 Dec 15
Some of them are caught, of course, but the perpetrators are very clever and use various means to obfuscate their identity. Moreover, the victims of such scams are quite often too ashamed and embarrassed to admit that they have been scammed and so the police may never know about it.
There are a number of ways in which it is possible to get money from people without the recipient being traceable. Western Union money transfer is one which is used very often.
One scam involves the scammer asking the victim to perform a small and easy service for him. He then sends a cheque to the victim which is for far more than the stated payment, usually claiming that it's a banker's error or that it is 'to avoid charges'. They instruct the victim to send on the bulk of the amount immediately to a 'third party' by Western Union. The cheque they send is, of course, a fake but, because it is less than a certain amount, a cashier may pass it without comment (recently, banks have become more aware of this, however). The victim then withdraws all except the small 'fee' from his account and sends it off by WU. It normally takes about three days for a cheque to clear through the system and to be reported as a fraud, by which time the scammer has his money and the victim may well be sued for the criminal offence of passing a dud cheque.
@poehere (15126)
• French Polynesia
3 Dec 15
@owlwings I know now that a few people get caught this way because they have a person waiting at some of the WU sites or they check the security footage on their security cameras. I did notice a few years back a person in the UK was caught for this very scam.
1 person likes this
@Marcyaz (35316)
• United States
3 Dec 15
there is also something similiar to that going to your home where they call you on the phone and ask if you will be home than when they show up they want a payment for delivery and say no debit or credit card or check, cash only. It is a scam to get your money.
@celticeagle (159020)
• Boise, Idaho
13 Dec 15
I always go through even what I get in the spam filter just incase and I think I got one of these. I didn't open it cause I knew I had nothing going on. Thanks for the info though.
@celticeagle (159020)
• Boise, Idaho
14 Dec 15
@poehere ...So what does that mean? How does this help those things?
@poehere (15126)
• French Polynesia
14 Dec 15
@celticeagle It helps you protect your computer, data, and personal property. To be aware of how things like this happens so you can prevent them from happening to you.
1 person likes this
@LeaPea2417 (36442)
• Toccoa, Georgia
6 Dec 15
Thank for the warning. Usually messages like that go right to my junk mail. I never open stuff like that.
@LeaPea2417 (36442)
• Toccoa, Georgia
6 Dec 15
@poehere That happened to my Mom once, she opened one and her whole computer stopped. I forget if she had that particular computer fixed or if she just bought a new computer. But, she did learn a big lesson from that, never to open those things.
@poehere (15126)
• French Polynesia
6 Dec 15
@LeaPea2417 right now a lot of this is spreading through a Flash update. That is how a lot of this new virus is getting into people's computer. It is best to turn off automatic updates on all flash players.
1 person likes this
@ReViewMeMedia (3785)
• United States
4 Dec 15
The only time you need to know that you have a USPS package is if you actually bought something online, and you should always compare tracking numbers. If you didn't buy anything online, you should not see any USPS package notice.
@poehere (15126)
• French Polynesia
6 Dec 15
Actually even when I have ordered for my mom online I have never ever seen a USPS tracking noticed. I just get an email from the company I ordered from saying it was shipped.
@PainsOnSlate (21854)
• Canada
5 Dec 15
My husband has shown me the emails and he deletes them without opening but he thinks its a scam. I will tell him it might be a virus. We have a Mac and Apple says we are protected from virus's but I wouldnot want to test that.
@PainsOnSlate (21854)
• Canada
6 Dec 15
@poehere I'm very new with the mac so I leave it to my kids to show me how to do new things, So far we haven't had a problem and we never open emails that we don't recognize or expect.
@poehere (15126)
• French Polynesia
6 Dec 15
@PainsOnSlate This is a good idea. Just be careful of the MAC they have some new vulnerabilities that will expose you to all kinds of things. I would research on this one before it's too late.
1 person likes this
@poehere (15126)
• French Polynesia
6 Dec 15
This too will effect MAC products. There is an iOS out there for MAC computers that you can use to stop or reverse the damage of a virus attack. They are Deep Freeze programs that you can download and install. So what it means is that your computer has no viruses today. When you boot up your computer the deep freeze starts. during the day a virus enters in and you see this. Just reboot and tell the program to restart. It will restart the computer with no changes made.
1 person likes this
@RichardMeister (5328)
• Otis Orchards, Washington
4 Dec 15
I've gotten a couple of these but since I have no packages coming from anywhere (and I figured they wouldn't have my email address anyway) I set them up so they will go to my spam box.
@poehere (15126)
• French Polynesia
4 Dec 15
This is perfect and glad you do this one. I know a lot of people who open the ones about a private message. Bad choice to do this one too.
@poehere (15126)
• French Polynesia
3 Dec 15
@norcal That is the exact reason I posted this here. I was hoping more people would read this but maybe they figure it won't happen to them. I just want to warn people because in the past 2 weeks I've seen a major increase in these types of emails and also flash and java update viruses.
Maybe after it's too late people might stop by and see what happened. I just hope it won't happen to them and they will know what to look for before it's too late.
@whiteream (8567)
• United States
4 Dec 15
Every time I turn around I am reading about stuff like this going on. It's a wonder anyone does anything anymore out of fear of something bad happening.
@poehere (15126)
• French Polynesia
6 Dec 15
Yes you are right. Today viruses are so common it is not even fair to users around the world. That is one reason I keep my personal email secure and safe. I never give out this email address when I am on line. I have 2 other email address I use. One for downloading stuff and the other for signing up to forums or different sites I need some info from. so this way nobody can find me and send me all this crap. On the other 2 email address a few times some of this stuff shows up but not a lot. I really watch who gets my email addresses. You might want to create one just for the internet and keep your personal one safe.
1 person likes this
@poehere (15126)
• French Polynesia
6 Dec 15
@AnanthuVs Here is the link
You can download this and install it. This is the best one I had found a few years ago. I have been using this for around 7 years now and it works perfect. I know this one is not that old but before I had a different one and when I changed around some of my computers I found a few issues with it and switched to this one. I love it and it is excellent.
Reboot Restore Rx™ is a Freeware utility that makes it easy to maintain PC’s in small public access computing environments (classrooms, computer labs, kiosks, internet cafes, libraries, etc.). Every time you restart the PC’s - they will automatically reset
1 person likes this
@fishtiger58 (29823)
• Momence, Illinois
8 Dec 15
wow thanks for that information, going to go check my setting on email right now as owlwings suggests.
@poehere (15126)
• French Polynesia
8 Dec 15
Good I hope this one helps. You might always want to disable automatic flash updates. Seems a lot of them are coming through there too.
@fishtiger58 (29823)
• Momence, Illinois
8 Dec 15
@poehere hmmm not sure I know what automatic flash updates are, didn't see anything like that when fixing my settings on my email I better check again.
@Shellyann36 (11385)
• United States
8 Dec 15
Oh that is scary. I will have to let my hubby know too. We have ordered a few things online for the holidays. Thanks for the warning.
@cupkitties (7421)
• United States
4 Dec 15
I normally only deal with Amazon and they send me texts when my order is on the way some where. I did pass this on to my dad though as he gets a lot of packages from USPS.
@poehere (15126)
• French Polynesia
4 Dec 15
You know what this has nothing to do with it. It has to do with people having a email listing and using this listing to send out bogus emails that make a person think they have a package. You might only deal with Amazon but what do other's deal with that might happen to send you a package. At this time of the year people are mailing gifts all over the world. That is why it's so easy for this virus to spread around. People might think wow this could be so and so sending me a package. You open it up and follow the link and bomb you are infected with a virus.
It is excellent to let all of your friends and family know. This isn't only for packages. it is also voice mail message and other things too. I did give a list of some of the most common emails that are being sent out right now.
@marijuana (570)
• Tel Aviv, Israel
3 Dec 15
Oh my! they just never run out of ideas! thanks for the warning.
@poehere (15126)
• French Polynesia
6 Dec 15
No they don't that is what is so sad about these people. They finally closed down another one of these rings but not before they had gotten over 1.5 million from people.
