An email about an alleged package lures you into an expensive subscription trap!

The email claims that you should receive a package, but it still has to be retrieved. The email itself is quite plain and comes from the sender “Information”, which doesn’t necessarily seem serious. Goal of the email: You are lured into a subscription trap!

The email about the ominous package
The email about the ominous package

“Subject: You have not yet retrieved your package in the mailbox

Regarding parcel number #2981 HSU – DK

Dear customer,

You have not yet retrieved your package in the mailbox

For more information, press the package number below

2981 HSU – DK

*The package will be returned to sender if not picked up within two days”

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Well, then let's press it

We come to a page that appears to belong to a shipping service called “City Express”, but the URL alone should make you suspicious: the ending “.to” belongs to the island state of Tonga .

The supposed shipping service
The supposed shipping service

Things get even stranger when we now want to track the alleged package:

Shipping costs still need to be paid
Shipping costs still need to be paid

“Pay for the shock”

You might rub your hands greedily: an iPhone 11 is probably on the way from somewhere, but shipping costs of 1.97 euros are still outstanding. With one more click we just have to “pay for the shock”.

We are unsure whether this is a typo by the scammers or a secret announcement that a shock awaits the user. And we're not at all surprised that the alleged shipping service knows what's in the package!

The horror in the small print – the subscription trap

Let's quickly forget that we should actually pay shipping costs of 1.97 euros, because suddenly we are offered the above smartphone for 1 euro:

The final step to the subscription trap
The final step to the subscription trap

Let us briefly summarize at this point:

  1. A package should first be retrieved
  2. We land on an ominous shipping service from Tonga
  3. The shipping service knows what is in the package
  4. We are supposed to enter our data, which the shipping service should actually have

The kicker comes when we scroll way, way down and read the fine print:

The small print leads to the subscription trap
The small print leads to the subscription trap

“The price of your subscription to eBookWormers.com is €45/month and the subscription will continue until canceled.”

In fact, this is a subscription to a site where you can read a selection of eBooks for 45 euros a month... which is a little more expensive than, for example, Amazon.

[mk_ad]

Conclusion

There is hardly any legal action to be taken against the creators of such sites: they are mostly located abroad anonymously, and often only blocking the credit card helps. This is advisable anyway, because this data is often traded on the Internet and further debits are to be expected.

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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )