Remember USPS won’t ask for payment for a package delivery

Last updated on July 5th, 2024 at 10:58 am

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My parents were at the post office earlier this week. My mom overheard a person talking to a USPS clerk about a possible scam. She wanted me to share this.

It seems the person had received a call stating their package could not be delivered because there was postage due.

Does this sound familiar to anyone else?

The USPS worker assured the person that it was a scam. So let’s take a minute to talk about this, shall we?

We all know package scams are one of the biggest and longest-running schemes. I’ve shared about a few in the past year.

The scam

This scam is another take on the UPS or FedEx package scams. I can even go as far as saying this is just another Phishing or payment-style scam.

A person is contacted and told their package can’t be delivered because an amount is owed or there is some extra “Fee”.

This scam can be by text, email, or even by phone. There person who was at the post office claimed they had a phone call.

So it’s probably a very convincing recording stating that they are calling from the United States Postal Service. The caller probably states your package would not be delivered (fill in the reason) and then will proceed to ask follow-up questions or maybe for a form of payment.

This can also be done via text or email as well. The text messages may state that your package could not be delivered. Or that you need to reschedule delivery. followed by a link.

Never confirm anything

One thing you can do is to never confirm anything. If you have a call out of the blue from USPS just hang up. Or mark the text message as spam. Don’t follow any links or provide any information.

Remember USPS won’t ask for money

Remember government agencies don’t ask for payment over the phone. All so keep in mind they don’t ask for payments in gift cards, Paypal, Venmo, etc.

if no one’s home they leave a note

If your package requires a signature and no one is home your postal carrier will leave you a slip. Some are yellow or some may be white but they leave it in your mailbox or in my case they’ve left it on my front door. All of the slips have some USPS symbols on them.

Here is an example of the slips

USPS has confirmed these scams

I found two links that may help you learn more. You can also report these scams directly to USPS.

https://www.uspis.gov/news/scam-article/fake-usps-phone-calls

https://faq.usps.com/s/article/Scams-Scheme-Alerts

If you have a suspicious call, text, or email claiming to be from USPS you can contact them directly or visit your local post office.