this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2023
370 points (97.2% liked)

News

23367 readers
3868 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

The United States Postal Service is warning of a scam involving text messages that ask for information in order for a package to be delivered.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 21 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I’ve gotten like 4 of these, and it’s honestly surprising to me that anyone with more than a dozen brain cells falls for these scams, since they’re comically obvious.

So yeah I guess that actually accounts for like a good third or so of the country.

[–] Fapper_McFapper@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They know that there will be a certain number of the population that will see these attempts as obvious. Those texts aren’t meant for us. They’re meant for the elderly and less savvy.

[–] Velociraptor@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They prey on the vulnerable. That's really all you have to say.

[–] Manifish_Destiny@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know... morons.

fails to conceal giggle

[–] Oneobi@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Well, you say that but coincidentally I was expecting a parcel from a courier and received a well crafted text saying that delivery attempt failed.

It's easy to fall into a trap like this. It was only when I paused wondering why are they asking for my address did I realise its a scam.

It was sent at 8:30, right during personal rush hour time.

[–] greenskye@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago

Same thing happened to my wife. It was perfect timing with an actual expected package that missed delivery. Send out enough of these and you're bound to get a few hits from people in the exact scenario you're scamming for.

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Same here. My teen ordered something that was supposed to arrive this coming weekend. However it arrived early by USPS and the first I learned about it was when he got that scam text. I told him it looked like a scam, but I checked the real tracking number and the package was delivered.

I wonder if they have a data source for real deliveries to target - the online store did use some third party tracker that I accidentally clicked on before going to USPS

Honestly, this is just an unfortunate artifact of the ubiquitous nature of technology these days, and the fact that most people don’t think too hard about what’s actually happening or how this crazy amalgamation of information and services operates, and simply consider it “convenient magic”.