The United States Postal Service Warns of a Sneaky New Scam

One of the most popular tools for scammers nowadays is the use of text messages. The practice is referred to as "smishing" and it has caused a lot of pain and agony for people in recent years. Now, a new smishing scam is using the guise of the United State Postal Service and officials are telling people to beware.

The United State Postal Inspection Service, which is a division of the postal service, has released a video warning Americans of a new attempt for wrongdoers to use your own device to steal your identity. There are a variety of messages these scammers will send you in an effort to get you to click the link within and that will open you up to a whole lot of trouble.

So, what is the motivation of these hack attacks? The USPS says,

The criminals want to receive personally identifiable information (PII) about the victim such as: account usernames and passwords, Social Security number, date of birth, credit and debit card numbers, personal identification numbers (PINs), or other sensitive information. This information is used to carry out other crimes, such as financial fraud.

The scammers disguise themselves as government agencies due to the perceived believability by a victim.

What can be done to prevent an attack on your identity and personal information? The USPS has given the following tips to follow closely.

• Think
• Don't Reply
• Report
• Delete
• Block Spam Messages
• Treat Your Personal Info Like Cash
• Review Your Cellphone Bill
• Provide Security Updates

To report USPS Smishing take the following steps in an email to spam@uspis.gov.

• Without clicking on the web link, copy the body of the suspicious text message and paste into a new email.
• Provide your name in the email, and also attach a screenshot of the text message showing the phone number of the sender and the date sent.
• Include any relevant details in your email, for example: if you clicked the link, if you lost money, if you provided any personal information, or if you experienced any impacts to your credit or person.
• The Postal Inspection Service will contact you if more information is needed.
• Forward the smishing/text message to 7726 (this will assist with reporting the scam phone number).

Scammers are constantly changing up their game and strategy to keep you and the authorities off the scent. Do your best to not become another statistic in the plight of ravenous identity theft and other repercussions as a result of the click of a link.

You Can See Warning Videos from the USPS Below