A new twist on an old scam is showing up in email in boxes in South Carolina claiming to be sent by the U. S. Postal Inspection Service in New York. The message, attached, supposedly from Chief Postal Inspector William R. Galligan, notifies the recipient that a “parcel from DHL courier service has been stopped for security reasons” and “Our scanning system has detected that your parcel contains a confirmable ATM card to the tune of $1.5 million dollars.” The email goes on to offer to forward the parcel if the recipient will pay for an affidavit “from Spain” costing 89 Euros, and includes an email address to forward the payment.

“This scam is not new,” said Justin Crooks, PIO for the Charlotte Division of the U. S. Postal Inspection Service. “It’s a new take on the old ‘advance fee’ scam. However, it is unusual for scammers to use the Chief Postal Inspector’s name in order to sell a potential victim on playing along with their scam. None of the information in the email is factually correct, and, as usual, we warn folks not to open emails from an unknown source or to respond to any offer that is “too good to be true”.

A warning about it was posted on the U. S. Postal Inspection Service website at: https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/radDocs/consumer/CrimeAlert%20Gilliganemail.pdf

The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

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