Beware! Fake Fed-Ex shipping phishing scam (and others)

If you’ve followed my blog for awhile, you know that from time to time I will share out some information about different scams floating around that I see or read about, etc. in order to help make sure you are aware of them and are protecting yourselves from them, such as:

• Beware: “Account Info Change” Phishing Scam
• How to avoid scams that use the Microsoft name fraudulently
• Fake Hotmail alerts and support calls. Protect yourself and others!
• Change your LinkedIn password now, and other tips to help stay safe online and in social media

Well this past week, I have received numerous emails in an apparent fake FedEx shipping phishing scam (It’s not from FedEx, it’s from someone pretending to be) going around, so I thought I would share it here with you so you know what to look for, and to once again cover off on some online basics you should always keep in mind to protect yourself.

The emails I received came in with varying subjects, and here are just a few samples of them:

• “Tracking Service”
• “Order Detail”
• “Shipping Information”
• “Tracking Info”
• “Tracking Information”
• “Shipping Service”

Regardless of the subject, the general message is the same, even though the formatting varies a little. Here’s a screen capture of one of them:

Click on image for full size

At first glance, this may look like a legitimate FedEx notification, so you may be tempted to just click through to find out what unknown surprise was shipped to you and is waiting to be picked up (which is what they are hoping for). As I have shared several times in the past, before you start aimlessly clicking through emails, especially those offering you unexpected surprises like unclaimed riches, winning lottery entries from countries you’ve never visited, or even unexpected FedEx packages, check out the basics (which I’ll point out some failures below in the email I am using as a demonstration):

1) Look at the return address: @Lexington.us??? That’s not FedEx 2) Notice the Registered Trademark symbol is missing from the FedEx logo (I’ve included the real one to the right in the red circle to see the difference) and the font is different 3) If you copy and paste that Tracking ID into the FedEx tracking system online at www.FedEx.com, guess what? It’s not recognized because IT’S FAKE! 4) If you hover over the “Print Receipt” button (DON’T CLICK IT!), you’ll see the crazy URL it wants to take you to if you do click it. Only bad things can come from clicking that item and it is NOT a FedEx URL.

So, it unfortunately looks like I don’t have a surprise package waiting for me at the local FedEx office; however, I also don’t have a “surprise” being installed on my computer right now by not paying attention and blindly clicking on the fake “Print Receipt” button either. Again, this is by no means the only phishing type of scam floating around nor the only one with people pretending to be someone else (fake FedEx in this instance). Please take the proper steps to protect yourself against these types of attempts to access your information and do harm to you and your assets. If you haven’t read the other posts I reference above regarding other scams and resources available to you, please take a few moments to familiarize yourself with them. Oh, and by the way, it looks like the fake “Microsoft Lottery” mail is back in market again, so check out my How to avoid scams that use the Microsoft name fraudulently post to see more about the fake Microsoft items as well.

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Thank you and have a wonderful day,

Eric Ligman– Follow me on TWITTER, LinkedIn, and Facebook
Sales Excellence Program Manager
Microsoft Corporation
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights