Members of the public reportedly received a SMS with a company’s hyperlink and a parcel tracking code. The recipients were informed about the delay of their parcel’s delivery due to insufficient information. Recipients of the SMS clicked on the link of a courier website and were instructed to provide personal details and pay additional fee. Suspecting it was a scam as they had not purchased anything online nor had sent any parcels out, they reported the incident to the police immediately.
Judiciary Police investigation revealed that the link in the SMS was different from the one of the legitimate company, and the parcel tracking code received by all recipients were identical. In addition, the recipients had never engaged the concerned courier for its service. Perpetrators are likely to take advantage of recent delivery delay due to current epidemic to defraud members of the public through phishing websites.
Similar cases had occurred before in Macao. The Judiciary Police urge the public to stay wary against fraud and identity theft and be cautious upon receiving similar SMS.
Preventive measures:
- Stay vigilant if you receive any unsolicited phone calls, messages or emails. Think twice of the caller’s or the sender’s identity and verify them through reliable sources when it comes to your personal and financial information;
- Do not click on any unsolicited links or photos to keep computer viruses at bay and secure your personal information;
- Beware of any phishing websites and check if the web address given is identical to the official website;
- Install and update anti-virus software on your mobile devices and computers regularly ;
- Share crime prevention tips with family and friends to protect them from fraud;
- If you think you have fallen prey to scam or you have any crime intelligence for the police, please call our Anti-scam hotline 8800 7777 or crime report hotline 993.
