LOCAL

The festive season is nearly upon us and with it may come parcels from overseas. Be careful, if you are expecting a package, not to fall for a scam pretending to be holding up your parcel at customs.

The South African Post Office (Sapo) has warned of an e-mail doing the rounds claiming parcels are being retained due to outstanding customs fees.

The e-mail encourages the receiver to click on a link to make a payment to release the package.

The post office said any e-mail pretending to be Sapo and requesting an electronic payment is a scam.

DON’T RUSH TO MAKE PAYMENT

“The post office normally sends an SMS when a parcel is ready for collection and never requests an EFT or online payment before a parcel is collected,” Sapo said.

“If customs fees are payable on a parcel posted from abroad the client pays the costs when they collect the package.

CHECK THE E-MAIL ADDRESS OF THE SENDER

Another sign it may be fraudsters is the e-mail address of the sender.

“E-mails sent from the server of the SA Post Office originate from @postoffice.co.za. The scam e-mails are sent from different servers.”

CHECK THE PARCEL NUMBER

You can also check the parcel number in the e-mail.

The scam e-mail often lists a parcel number starting with ZA. This is not generated by the post office. When you search the parcel number on the post office’s parcel tracking service it will not show any results.

Source: TimesLIVE