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  • 2008-12-10 (xsd:date)
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  • Package Pick-Up Scam (en)
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  • The lure of something for (next to) nothing will always prove a potent one, as the success of ripoff messages like the following demonstrates: Acting on the belief they'll soon be getting their hands on a package that contains a check, a money order, a bank draft for a large sum, or some other valuable item, the unwary are duped into forking over security keeping fees to con artists representing themselves as agents of courier companies holding such parcels for delivery. But of course, the promised treasures do not exist, nor do the payments extracted from gullible victims end up with any legitimate courier or parcel delivery company — any monies paid out go straight into the pockets of the persons running the cons. While in the U.S. this fraud generally presents FedEx as the courier company demanding a security keeping fee before it will release the parcel to its intended recipient, other shippers such as UPS and DHL have also been named. The e-mailed come-ons meant to trick new victims out of their cash are typically generously festooned with the name and logo of whichever delivery company is mentioned in the fraudulent message as the one demanding the fee. Sometimes photographs of a box said to be the package that is being held in transit are included in an effort to bolster the believability of the tale being told. Names of respected shipping entities are invoked in this boondoggle solely to provide the attempt to defraud with the appearance of credibility. The real FedEx, UPS, and DHL have nothing to do with these non-existent parcels, nor do they charge a security keeping fee on packages they've accepted for shipment. While this scam has been hitting the inbox hard in December 2008, we first encountered a non-FedEx version of it in May 2007 and spotted the first FedEx version in October 2007. A DHL version went through Australia in July 2008. Those being entreated to pony up a security keeping fee are asked for a specific dollar amount, usually somewhere between $150 and $300 with the $206 to $210 range being common. Said remuneration is to be made via wire transfer, which is a favored cash harvesting mode of con artists the world over since senders have some recourse for recovering payments made by credit card or check but little recourse for recovering payments made by wire transfer. The delivery company DHL says about this con that: FedEx provides similar information about the frauds being perpetrated with its name: Variants of e-mails used in this scam can be found on FedEx's web page of examples. (en)
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