Showerthought: That viral phishing email about "package delivery issues" is getting smarter every week

I got one last Tuesday that looked almost identical to a real USPS tracking notification. The URL was just one letter off from the official site. What got me was the grammar was perfect this time, no misspellings or awkward phrasing like before. Has anyone else noticed these scams getting harder to spot just by looking for obvious errors?

3 comments

3 Comments

abbyp6112h agoMost Upvoted

The trick is to always hover over the link before clicking, even if it looks perfect. I had one that copied the USPS font and layout exactly, but the domain was "usps-tracking.co" instead of the real one. Another thing is to just open your browser and type in the tracking number on the official site directly instead of using their link. I also started checking my email for the sender address - if it's not from an official .gov or .usps domain, it's almost always fake. These scammers are getting good, but they still can't get past those basics if you stop and think first.

sammartinez2h ago

Wait, do you really think the domain thing is that foolproof though? I feel like people get too comfortable with that one trick and then get caught off guard when scammers get creative. Stuff like "usps.com-tracking.xyz" can still look legit in a hurry if you're not paying close attention. Plus, checking the sender address is smart but some of these fake emails actually spoof the display name to look like it's from a .gov domain, so even that can slip by. I think the best thing is just never click any link in an email about a package you didn't expect, and if you did order something, go to the actual store or shipping site and check there. It's not that the basics don't work, it's that people let their guard down when they think they've got it figured out.

olivermason12h ago

Tbh my uncle fell for one that looked like Amazon but the url had a double a in the middle, never clicked a link since.