It's a very common scam in my neck of the woods as well. I'm constantly receiving emails with text like "your package is held up at customs, please pay $2.50 to release it".
Are enough people buying online AND losing track of their orders that they will just blindly take the bait? I fail to see how this vector is more lucrative than the "your computer is infected" route.
Anecdotally for me, roughly once every ~10-20 orders does the attack coincide with an order that I'm waiting for. But then I know where the order is coming from, I know which courier is handling my package, and the store 9/10 times have an online tracker and the shop itself will alert me if there are any delivery shenanigans going on.
That's a good point I guess - I am married. But the first thing that I'll do if the email is not immediately suspicious is ask my spouse if they are expecting anything and why the message came to me and not them.
Maybe I'm not the target market for these operators.
lol yea, most couple aren't great at communication, so that already puts you in the 1% just by texting your SO when you have a question instead of blindly assuming.
Are enough people buying online AND losing track of their orders that they will just blindly take the bait? I fail to see how this vector is more lucrative than the "your computer is infected" route.
Anecdotally for me, roughly once every ~10-20 orders does the attack coincide with an order that I'm waiting for. But then I know where the order is coming from, I know which courier is handling my package, and the store 9/10 times have an online tracker and the shop itself will alert me if there are any delivery shenanigans going on.