Dubious Quality

I don't receive texts from USPS, but this one notified me that they'd attempted a delivery but had incomplete address information. I needed to correct the address, and they included a link that went to a totally authentic-looking USPS website (I would find out later that it's an exact copy, with some scammage added in).

The redelivery was going to cost thirty cents, and it asked me for credit card information.

I started to wonder, obviously, when I saw that, and I started doing research. 

Impressively, the link included in the text, if put into the browser on a different device, went to a real USPS site. The scam site, though, was a duplicate, with the exception of the credit card info field. There was even a tracking number in the correct format (USPS has a 22-digit tracking number, incredibly).

Like I said, it was all very impressive. 

There were a couple of moments in the text where it seemed off, but only very slightly. It didn't seem unreasonable at all. It seemed more authentic than plenty of real texts I've received. 

Of course, it's a scam. USPS doesn't charge a redelivery fee. The scammers, though, made it for such a small amount that many people will put in their credit card info just to move on, even if they don't exactly remember what package is being referenced. It would be very, very easy to get scammed.

Staying away from all this crap can be exhausting. No matter how many people work on creating secure systems, the number of bad actors researching ways to break those systems is exponentially higher.