During the social distancing and quarantining that has become the hallmark of the Coronavirus pandemic, deliveries by UPS, Federal Express, Amazon and others have become the primary way many of us are doing all or almost all of our shopping.  With so many people having goods delivered, there have been an increasing number of delays and problems that have arisen in shipping and scammers, posing as delivery companies are taking advantage of this fact by sending out phishing emails and text messages in which they attempt to lure people into clicking on links or downloading attachments that will install dangerous malware on to the phones and computers of their victims.  Often these emails indicate that in order to receive a pending shipment, you must confirm information in an attached file.  In other instances, you are told that there was a labeling error and you need to confirm information by downloading and responding to an attachment.   In yet other instances, you are told there is a delay in the shipping of your package and instructed to click on a link or download an attachment for more information. Some of these emails may even contain a statement that the email was scanned for security purposes and found not to contain any malicious files or links, however, you can never rely on such a statement.

For those of you receiving the Scam of the day through an email, I just want to remind you that if you want to see the ever increasing list of Coronavirus scams go to the first page of the http://www.scamicide.com website and click on the tab at the top of the page that indicates “Coronavirus Scams.”

If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to receive daily emails with the Scam of the day, all you need to do is to go to the bottom of the initial page of http://www.scamicide.com and click on the tab that states “Sign up for this blog.”