The fake USPS phishing page.
Recent weeks have seen a sizable uptick in the number of phishing scams targeting U.S. Postal Service (USPS) customers. Here’s a look at an extensive SMS phishing operation that tries to steal personal and financial data by spoofing the USPS, as well as postal services in at least a dozen other countries.
KrebsOnSecurity recently heard from a reader who received an SMS purporting to have been sent by the USPS, saying there was a problem with a package destined for the reader’s address. Clicking the link in the text message brings one to the domain usps.informedtrck[.]com.
The landing page generated by the phishing link includes the USPS logo, and says “Your package is on hold for an invalid recipient address. Fill in the correct address info by the link.” Below that message is a “Click update” button that takes the visitor to a page that asks for more information.
The remaining buttons on the phishing page all link to the real USPS.com website. After collecting your address information, the fake USPS site goes on to request additional personal and financial data.
This phishing domain was recently registered and its WHOIS ownership records are basically nonexistent. However, we can find some compelling clues about the extent of this operation by loading the phishing page in Developer Tools, a set of debugging features built into Firefox, Chrome and Safari that allow one to closely inspect a webpage’s code and operations.
Check out the bottom portion of the screenshot below, and you’ll notice that this phishing site fails to load some external resources, including an image from a link called fly.linkcdn[.]to.
Click the image to enlarge.
A search on this domain at the always-useful URLscan.io shows that fly.linkcdn[.]to is tied to a slew of USPS-themed phishing domains. Here are just a few of those domains (links defanged to prevent accidental clicking):
usps.receivepost[.]com
usps.informedtrck[.]com
usps.trckspost[.]com
postreceive[.]com
usps.trckpackages[.]com
usps.infortrck[.]com
usps.quicktpos[.]com
usps.postreceive].]com
usps.revepost[.]com
trackingusps.infortrck[.]com
usps.receivepost[.]com
usps.trckmybusi[.]com
postreceive[.]com
tackingpos[.]com
usps.trckstamp[.]com
usa-usps[.]shop
usps.infortrck[.]com
unlistedstampreceive[.]com
usps.stampreceive[.]com
usps.stamppos[.]com
usps.stampspos[.]com
usps.trckmypost[.]com
usps.trckintern[.]com
usps.tackingpos[.]com
usps.posinformed[.]com
As we can see in the screenshot below, the developer tools console for informedtrck[.]com complains that the site is unable to load a Google Analytics code — UA-80133954-3 — which apparently was rejected for pointing to an invalid domain.
Notice the highlighted Google Analytics code exposed by a faulty Javascript element on the phishing website. Click to enlarge. That code actually belongs to the USPS.
The valid domain for that Google Analytics code is the official usps.com website. According to dnslytics.com, that same analytics code has shown up on at least six other nearly identical USPS phishing pages dating back nearly as many years, including onlineuspsexpress[.]com, which DomainTools.com says was registered way back in September 2018 to an individual in Nigeria.
A different domain with that same Google Analytics code that was registered in 2021 is peraltansepeda[.]com, which archive.org shows was running a similar set of phishing pages targeting USPS users. DomainTools.com indicates this website name was registered by phishers based in Indonesia.
DomainTools says the above-mentioned USPS phishing domain stamppos[.]com was registered in 2022 via Singapore-based Alibaba.com, but the registrant city and state listed for that domain says “Georgia, AL,” which is not a real location.
Alas, running a search for domains registered through Alibaba to anyone claiming to reside in Georgia, AL reveals nearly 300 recent postal phishing domains ending in “.top.” These domains are either administrative domains obscured by a password-protected login page, or are .top domains phishing customers of the USPS as well as postal services serving other countries.
Those other nations include the Australia Post, An Post (Ireland), Correos.es (Spain), the Costa Rican post, the Chilean Post, the Mexican Postal Service, Poste Italiane (Italy), PostNL (Netherlands), PostNord (Denmark, Norway and Sweden), and Posti (Finland). A complete list of these domains is available here (PDF).
A phishing page targeting An Post, the state-owned provider of postal services in Ireland.
The Georgia, AL domains at Alibaba also encompass several that spoof sites claiming to collect outstanding road toll fees and fines on behalf of the governments of Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.
An anonymous reader wrote in to say they submitted fake information to the above-mentioned phishing site usps.receivepost[.]com via the malware sandbox any.run. A video recording of that analysis shows that the site sends any submitted data via an automated bot on the Telegram instant messaging service.
The traffic analysis just below the any.run video shows that any data collected by the phishing site is being sent to the Telegram user @chenlun, who offers to sell customized source code for phishing pages. From a review of @chenlun’s other Telegram channels, it appears this account is being massively spammed at the moment — possibly thanks to public attention brought by this story.

Meanwhile, researchers at DomainTools recently published a report on an apparently unrelated but equally sprawling SMS-based phishing campaign targeting USPS customers that appears to be the work of cybercriminals based in Iran.
Phishers tend to cast a wide net and often spoof entities that are broadly used by the local population, and few brands are going to have more household reach than domestic mail services. In June, the United Parcel Service (UPS) disclosed that fraudsters were abusing an online shipment tracking tool in Canada to send highly targeted SMS phishing messages that spoofed the UPS and other brands.
With the holiday shopping season nearly upon us, now is a great time to remind family and friends about the best advice to sidestep phishing scams: Avoid clicking on links or attachments that arrive unbidden in emails, text messages and other mediums. Most phishing scams invoke a temporal element that warns of negative consequences should you fail to respond or act quickly.
If you’re unsure whether the message is legitimate, take a deep breath and visit the site or service in question manually — ideally, using a browser bookmark so as to avoid potential typosquatting sites.
Update: Added information about the Telegram bot and any.run analysis.
This entry was posted on Monday 9th of October 2023 04:39 PM
Unfortunately these schemes are so prevalent because they work.
They do. I was actually expecting a package that was very late, so I thought this bogus USPS email and site were about the lost package. The result was having to get a new debit card three times in as many months, and a new bank account number. Then I found out that the package I was expecting was bogus, too. Always check the actual address of the sender and the recipient(s). If these don’t match up, don’t open any links. I just got another one about a supposed shared document in Google.
There is a less convenient way to find out whatever you want to find out.
Never click links. Phones are extra dangerous with the touch operation.
Pretend clicking any link is instant death.
Unfortunately these scams are so prevalent because they work.
I also wonder how much responsibility website search companies like Google are to blame for this kind of redirecting of internet users to fake and malicious websites?
Whenever my children and I visit an internationally known fast-food restaurant chain, there is a website listed on the receipt stating that once you complete the online guest satisfaction survey, you will be given a code that will allow you to take part in a “buy one get one free” offer on your next visit to the restaurant. I am a computer and networking tech with advanced skills and more than 20 years of hands-on experience, but I have never been able to actually find the legitimate restaurant survey website. Instead, I have the phone number to the survey saved in my phone and I just call and complete the task over the phone. Why? Because the provided website leads me to a half-dozen spoofed or completely irrelevant sites. The potential for damages in this case are inconsequential, but the USPS and postal delivery spoofs are definitely real and need to be handled appropriately.
I get similar scams spoofing Australia Post, with URLs resembling theirs; e.g. they are not likely to use the .cc TLD when they have their own .com.au …
Here is another domain from similar phish/scam:
https://usps.modification-address[.]com
It’s behind Cloudflare, and apparently needs to be “activated” by the recipient; otherwise it just redirects to the regular USPS site. SMS message inviting clicks comes from Phillipines (‭+63 906 xxx xxxx‬) and goes as follows:
—8<———————————————————-
The USPS package arrived at the warehouse but could not be delivered due to incomplete address information. Please confirm your address in the link.
https://usps.modification-address[.]com
(Please reply Y, then exit the text message and open it again to activate the link, or copy the link and open it in your Safari browser).
The USPS team wishes you a wonderful day!
—8<———————————————————-
Thanks, Brian. Now I know it’s not just me being paranoid. Recently, I’ve had in excess of 200 phishing emails and SMS messages from Australia Post – “outstanding toll fees”, “can’t deliver parcel because address is incorrect” and so on. Not quite as interesting as the voicemail scam informing me that police are on the way to arrest me for not paying my taxes.
I got one like this about a week ago and almost clicked on the link. But figured it for phishing because the language was odd. Not wrong per Sw. Just odd. Especially the “Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.” I’m glad you send me these emails. It made me think twice. I reported it as phishing to Google (got in gmail).
Wish you would take a look at and report on the multitude of counterfeit USPS stamps being sold on FaceBook AND Walmart dot com. Reports to both organizations go answered and the illegal sales continue.
I’d like to add that today I received a phish email supposedly from Amazon but was not.
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Comment *
Name *
Email *
Website


Δ
Mailing List
Search KrebsOnSecurity
Recent Posts
Spam Nation
A New York Times Bestseller!
Thinking of a Cybersecurity Career?
Read this.
All About Skimmers
Click image for my skimmer series.
Story Categories
The Value of a Hacked PC
Badguy uses for your PC
Badguy Uses for Your Email
Your email account may be worth far more than you imagine.
Most Popular Posts
Why So Many Top Hackers Hail from Russia
Category: Web Fraud 2.0
Innovations from the Underground
ID Protection Services Examined
Is Antivirus Dead?
The reasons for its decline
The Growing Tax Fraud Menace
File ’em Before the Bad Guys Can
Inside a Carding Shop
A crash course in carding.
Beware Social Security Fraud
Sign up, or Be Signed Up!
How Was Your Card Stolen?
Finding out is not so easy.
Krebs’s 3 Rules…
…For Online Safety.

source