Yoyo Fashions a shop in Surat sent me a pre-stitched garment, an unstitched choli piece, and a dupatta on Saturday the 28th of October. It had Amazon shipping printed on it, received an SMS saying an Amazon delivery partner would deliver. It came. But one big problem.I never ordered from there. I don’t wear ghagra choli and luckily their data was all wrong. It was being tried for a cash on delivery or parcel delivery scam and it was not fun!
But forceful delivery of products with the address of the company printed on it made me realize, that someone is using data from the Amazon website to send people products through cash on delivery, and trying to dupe people is not cool. They also send a message saying an Amazon delivery person will deliver. It’s a problem. Kindly check your orders before accepting or paying because guess what? You have no way of returning it since you never ordered it!
It may be a phishing attempt and your account gets compromised when you pay online.But you can’t complain because guess what? You don’t have an order page because you never ordered.
It was the morning of Laxmi puja and I was planning my day while chatting with my husband who was fasting with me for the puja. It was Goddesse’s blessing that I received the money back even after opening the package because I returned it right away, practically within minutes. It was also the goodwill of the delivery company(maybe ?).
What I did Right
Immediately called and told him it was a wrong delivery and he needed to take it back or I was reporting him and the delivery partner to the local police and cybercrime division.
Didn’t pay online.
Didn’t share OTP.
Checked order history on the Amazon app and email for verification.
What I shouldn’t have done:
Accept the order when I had no notification of it.
A similar package was again sent for my husband which apparently the delivery agent canceled.I asked him whether they had checked with the company. He claimed many people had received packages from the same company which they had accepted. Very interesting to say the least. I wondered whether it’s usual for a company to be so casual about attempted fraud through their service. But that’s a question whose answer is blowing in the wind.
Who are they targeting?
People who have a large volume of shopping done online. That is people who have numerous parcels being delivered at home. Hence the Parcel scam.
People who accept multiple parcels at the same time and don’t check in the app before paying.Possibly in a hurry.
People who like Cash on delivery .The reason it’s called a cash-on-delivery scam.
People who don’t keep track of cybercrimes.
What’s their modus operandi?
Small amount of COD approximately 1000 to 1500 an amount they feel people won’t think twice about paying.
What can go wrong for you?
If you click on their link and put in the OTP generated. Your phone may be hacked or duplicated. Your banking data and other data were stolen and lost money from the bank. This can also happen if you share OTP for canceling an order.
What to do if they say the order cancellation requires an OTP to be shared? This is another method they are hacking into phones.
.Refuse and say since you didn’t place the order, you find no need to cancel it. In case of trouble call and report the crime to your nearest police station cybercrime division.
Have you ever faced something like this? What did you do?
I am reporting this to the cybercrime portal. I hope you do too if you face something like this.
Thanks for the warning.
You are welcome.