Police from Beijing to Shenzhen are putting out warnings about the latest scam that’s been catching people unawares: packages from false senders that require the recipient to pay a “delivery fee.”
Although a surprise package, especially one that requires you to pay money, might raise many senders’ suspicions, some have allowed curiosity to get the better of them. It’s not hard to sign for a package without a second glance, especially since the fee charged for delivery or “insurance” is usually moderate, ranging from RMB30-40.
But most who have done so opened the package afterwards only to find some cheap product, such as makeup, worth only RMB10-20.
The scam is made possible by the difficulty of keeping personal information private, lax legal enforcement and sometimes just plain carelessness.
The widespread nature of e-commerce means that many delivery companies and third parties have access to individuals' names, addresses and phone numbers. With this information, scammers can easily address a package to a person, catching them off-guard with accurate details.
If national laws requiring senders’ information to be verified were strictly enforced, this wouldn’t be such a problem either. Would-be scammers would never be able to get away with vague names and addresses such as 'Miss Chen, Baiyun District, Guangzhou, Guangdong.'
A sample package from 'Miss Chen'
Unfortunately, delivery companies rarely check this information. In response to a reporter’s questioning, one customer service employee at a delivery company justified it this way: “We won’t ask about the sender’s information. Otherwise if you’re mailing something and we repeatedly check information, would you be happy?”
One Ms. Wang in Shenzhen fell prey to the scam when she paid RMB39 to receive a package, thinking it had been mailed to her by a family member. She opened it to find a 50ml bottle of Chanel perfume, which a quick online search placed at a value of RMB1,000.
Needless to say, she was happy about the unexpected package and willingly signed for the next one, which cost RMB38. Inside was another 50ml bottle that appeared to be exactly the same as the first.
Ms. Wang's two packages
When she went to a Chanel store to confirm her prizes, however, she found that the brand didn’t actually offer any 50ml bottle options, not even for display. In other words, she'd been duped.
To avoid the same fate as Ms. Wang, police are recommending the following measures:
If you receive a package you weren’t expecting, open and inspect it in front of the delivery person.
Alternatively, call the sender's number. If it doesn't connect or the person hangs up, it's most likely a scam.
If you’ve been scammed, report it as soon as possible; police can only investigate further into the cause once a certain amount of reports have been made.
If you receive more than one surprise package from the same sender, try contacting the delivery service and asking them to track down their origin.
In general, avoid giving out personal or billing information whenever possible. You never know where it will end up.
[Images via SZ News]
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