The South African Post Office has issued a warning against an increase in the number of SMS scams that use the Post Office logo to trick members of the public into handing over money to fraudsters.
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Members of the public receive an SMS stating that a parcel addressed to them could not be delivered due to a missing address. The customer is then asked to click on a link and make a payment or to enter their bank card details. The ‘transaction’ then appears to be unsuccessful, but by then scammers have received the details of the bank account.
Members of the public who receive such an SMS notice should mark the message as spam and delete it immediately.
If there are customs fees payable on a postal parcel from another country, the client pays the fees when they collect the parcel. The Post Office gives customers the opportunity to check a parcel before they officially collect it and therefore does not require the payment of any fees before collection.
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.
Any request for electronic payment should be considered a scam.
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