Topic: USPS

[lovemunkey187]

Received the email today.

Am I right to be suspicious or does this seem kosher?

USPS® International Claims
St. Louis Accounting Service Center
PO BOX 80146
St Louis, MO 63180-0146 

This is to notify you that your parcel has been intercepted and is temporarily being held in transit in Spain .Delivery has been suspended for the following reasons:
1. The postal services scanning system has detected that your parcel contains valuable items .
2. In line with new international laws,Valuable items are to be fully insured and are subject to postal inspection by the USPS and corresponding international postal agencies. Our freight inspection department has verified the value of the package. Concluding the verification on the package our office has ascertained that the package was not duly insured. 

We have made efforts to contact the sender ,however we are unable to find a return-to-address,hence we are contacting you.Your name and email address were on the parcel for contact details.

The contents have been ascertained as a non-risk item,however under new laws any parcel is liable to full insurance coverage  payment.This is in the unlikely event of theft or loss of the parcel.
The sender did pay the appropriate courier fee but did not state the true value of the contents of  the parcel .We are therefore requesting you pay full insurance for the coverage of the parcel.  In order for us to release your package, you are obligated to pay the due insurance on the contents of the parcel You should therefore contact our Spanish corresponding agents in Madrid Spain ,where your parcel is currently being held While we wait to receive from you the insurance File Number to enable us forward your package to your address. Below is the contact information of our Spanish corresponding agent. 

Name: Mr. Tony White Email address: anthonywhite@terra.com
Phone: + 34 672-950-466 

Note:insurance coverage fees are payable to our corresponding postal agency in Spain.  Once you receive your insurance File Number, kindly forward the file number or scanned document to our corresponding agent (Tony White ) for further forwarding to the relevant department .In subject please include reference number ES67849NKL-2 and a confirmation of your :  name: address: contact number:  ,so your case file can be traced swiftly. Soon as we have received the required insurance File Number your package shall be sent to its destination.   

Susan
Freight Inspector in Charge
ADC 7665547 

The Freight Inspection department of USPS conducts checks on all parcels suspected of not being fully insured . 


THIS IS AN AUTOMATED MESSAGE.WE APOLOGIZE IF YOU HAVE ALREADY RECEIVED NOTIFICATION WITH REFERENCE TO THE SUBJECT ABOVE

[DJ Doena]

Definitively sounds fishy. While +34 is the spanish prefix, the number doesn't look right. Spanish landline phone numbers total nine digits: a two or three-digit area code and a six or seven-digit phone number (e.g. 91 234 5678) beginning with the digit 9 (or sometimes 8) but excluding 90 and 80. Landline area codes follow a geographic numbering system. Mobile phone numbers begin with 6 or 7.

Also terra.com seems to be a south-american infotainment website, not a spanish relay of USPS.

Also note the misplaced punctuation marks.

[kahless]

Looks like scam:

http://antifraudintl.org/showthread.php?t=41780

[hal9g]

No way would I contact or send money to these folks!   

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

The first thing you should ask yourself is: Do I expect a parcel from the USA?
The next question is: Since when is the receiver of a parcel responsible for correct insurance of the content?
The thing that makes it highly suspicious is the shipping route: From USA to UK via Spain?? No way! And even "if", it would be transit then with no further inspections.
It's also funny that the "Freight Inspector in Charge" only seems to have a first name, very unlikely for a trustworthy E-Mail from a company.

[Kathy]

I too would completely ignore this. I have never heard of the USPS ever sending out this type of message. I would notify your local post office and maybe even the Attorney General and report it. I would probably notify the local news so that others may be warned of this scam artist.

[lovemunkey187]

Thanks for the replies.

The first thing you should ask yourself is: Do I expect a parcel from the USA?
The next question is: Since when is the receiver of a parcel responsible for correct insurance of the content?
The thing that makes it highly suspicious is the shipping route: From USA to UK via Spain?? No way! And even "if", it would be transit then with no further inspections.
It's also funny that the "Freight Inspector in Charge" only seems to have a first name, very unlikely for a trustworthy E-Mail from a company.

I am expecting a parcel from the USofA (Castle: Season 2 and Hellboy II from Amazon.com).
The last couple of Amazon.com orders I received have been delivered via Germany, so I didn't think that it could be out of the realm of possibilities for it to come via Spain.

On a side note I have recived a nother email today. virtually identical in format. The only differences being that todays email is from UPS and the reference number.

[goodguy]

I am expecting a parcel from the USofA (Castle: Season 2 and Hellboy II from Amazon.com).

AFAIK shipments from Amazon always have a return address, so there is no way they would be unable to contact the sender.

[Touti]

Why not contact USPS and ask them if it's possible that this comes for them ?  Personally I think it's a scam, I seriously doubt that any Country's postal services would ask money in an email, they would mail you something more official.

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I am expecting a parcel from the USofA (Castle: Season 2 and Hellboy II from Amazon.com).

AFAIK shipments from Amazon always have a return address, so there is no way they would be unable to contact the sender.

Correct,
the next thing: if they couldn't even contact the sender, how the hell did they get to know your E-Mail adress? AFAIK Amazon doesn't have this data in their shipping papers (They do have your telephone number in it though)

[Touti]

In line with new international laws,Valuable items are to be fully insured and are subject to postal inspection by the USPS

That doesn't make any sense.  Why the heck would any postal service care whether a shipment is insured or not.............if someone is dumb enough to ship valuable stuff without insurance it would seem to be his problem.

[Jimmy]

Anyway when a package is held at the border it's the country customs office that send a letter (certainly not an email) to let you know. Whatever it's dangerous materials or prohibited movies not the postal service from where the package is from and usually because they want you to justify your purchase before deciding if it's fine or if they destroy the content.

It's like that here and it's certainly the same in all the countries since the international post is rule by an international treaty.