Post office warns of paying scam
Anyone who had information about postal crimes should contact the post office’s toll-free crime buster hotline on 0800 020 070.
The SA Post Office (Sapo) warned members of the public against falling victim to scams where they are urged to pay money into fraudulent accounts.
“Sapo has received numerous inquiries from members of the public who received emails that appear to originate from the Post Office but are designed to manipulate the receiver to pay money into a fraudulent account,” spokesperson Johan Kruger said.
He explained that the messages stated that the receiver’s parcel could only be released once a clearance fee was paid and included a link.
“Should the receiver click on the link, a page requesting payment opens where the receiver can make a payment to ‘release’ the fictitious parcel,” Kruger said.
An email that was not from the Post Office could be spotted through the following:
– Would never ask for import duties or clearance fees in advance. If the customs fees were payable on a parcel from overseas, the fees would be paid when it was collected from the Post Office counter.
– Would never request bank account details or an online payment for customs duties.
– Provide an invalid tracking number in a message which was invalid when entered into the postal tracking website.
“The Post Office sends customs an SMS or a collection slip when they have a parcel waiting for collection at a post office branch,” he said.
Kruger further said that the parcel should be collected as soon as possible to prevent it from being returned to the sender.
“Post office branches have separate queues, so, if you collect a parcel you will go into a shorter, faster queue,” he said.
Kruger encouraged anyone who had information about postal crimes to contact their toll-free crime buster hotline on 0800 020 070.
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