'Your package has arrived at the warehouse...': iPhone user gets a fake 'India Post' message, here's what he did next

A new scam targeting Android and iOS users in India has come to light. The scam involves fake delivery messages that seem to come from India Post, the country's official postal service, but are actually sent by cybercriminals.

An iPhone user on Monday experienced the scam. While he was busy at work, he received an iMessage on his iPhone. The message seemed urgent: "Your package has arrived at the warehouse and we attempted delivery twice but were unable to due to incomplete address information. Please update your address details within 48 hours, otherwise your package will be returned. Please update the address in the link: https://poinda.top/id After the update is completed we will re-deliver within 24 hours, Indi Post!"

The details of the message spoke of incomplete address information and a link (https://poinda.top/id) to update it within 48 hours to avoid the package being returned. "Re-delivery within 24 hours," the message concluded with "Indi Post!" – a misspelling that sent a shiver down the user's spine.

Something felt off. He wasn't sure why, but this message seemed fishy. He went back to the iMessage and tapped and held on the message. A little menu popped up, and he selected ‘Report Junk’. He also went to the India Post website’s ‘Contact Us’ section and reported the fraudulent message, forwarding the screenshot as proof. 

For the unversed, the fraudulent link only opens on smartphones and not on laptops. 

Meanwhile, several users have reported the same type of scam on the internet, asking others to be cautious about it. 

The government has also cautioned people about the scam and asked users to not click on any such links. The post on X said, “India Post never sends such messages asking for updating addresses for delivering articles… Do not click on such fraudulent links."

CyberDost, a cybersecurity division of the Indian government, unequivocally warned about a “transnational scam” identical to the India Post fraud, directly targeting iPhone users.

“iPhone users are learnt to be receiving scam messages via iMessage regarding package / courier from random accounts. Clicking on suspicious links may be avoided and read receipts may be disabled for such messages,” it said in a tweet.