Online security - Suspicious emails

We have become aware of a number of malicious / spam emails that have been sent to various business and private email addresses, some of which belong to our customers.

Emails entitled - “Important shipping information and payment instructions”
The latest version is where the recipient believes they have successfully purchased an item through a website and the alleged seller explains through a series of emails that it is not possible to collect the item – even though in some cases it is clearly too large to do anything else – but instead payment needs to be made on delivery.

They are then sent an email purporting to be from Parcelforce Worldwide stating that a sum of money needs to be paid in the specified manner in order for the goods to be released for delivery.  In many cases, the email will include what looks like a valid tracking number and make a statement suggesting that it is ‘Pending’ until the payment is made and cannot be tracked.

THIS EMAIL IS NOT FROM PARCELFORCE WORLDWIDE. WE WOULD NEVER SEND UNSOLICITED EMAILS TO CUSTOMERS REQUESTING PAYMENT LIKE THIS.

If you receive an email like this, under no circumstances should you act on its request, but instead report it to the Police and the website on which the item was advertised. Please also forward the emails to suspiciousemail@parcelforce.co.uk so that we are able monitor the numbers and, where possible, make follow up enquiries ourselves.

Emails containing attachments
The content of these emails vary, but includes reasons such as problems with the delivery address, the parcel is too large and should be collected or invites the recipient to “Track your parcel”.  It may also include a description such as “Parcelforce Service”, which we would never use in any communication with our customers. In the event that our delivery driver is unable to deliver a parcel, they will leave a card which explains where you can collect the parcel or how to arrange a redelivery.

Some of the emails also have an attachment which is reported to have a virus – under NO circumstances should this be opened. We recommend that you delete the email from your inbox.

If you are at all suspicious upon receiving such an email, you should report it to the appropriate website and if necessary also to the Police. We would advise the recipient of any unsolicited email to never open any links or attachments contained within it, but instead visit the website of the organisation concerned. Further help on Internet security issues can be found at www.getsafeonline.org.

If you do receive a email which seems to be of a malicious/spam nature please can you forward it to suspiciousemail@parcelforce.co.uk