New text scam? Client asked of private info via SMS before supposed item delivery

June 24, 2022 - 5:25 PM
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Business vector created by pikisuperstar via freepik

A text scam that involved a dubious delivery message to unsuspecting recipients was recently talked about on Twitter.

Dominic Ligot, the founder of Data Ethics PH, was the one who raised this concern on Twitter on June 23.

Ligot posted a photo of a message that notified the recipient of a supposed delivery being carried by GoGo Xpress, a local delivery and tracking service.

He also asked his followers if they ever received similar messages from the company.

“Anyone else encounter Gogo Express? Bad process or scammy? WDYT (What do you think)?”

In the photo, the sender claimed to be a delivery rider of GoGo Xpress.

The unknown sender then asked the other person’s name and address to make the supposed delivery.

Part of the message reads: “Good morning po! GoGo Express delivery po ito. Meron po kayong delivery today. Text back po kung available po kayo today para po ma-deliver ko po yung items niyo po.”

It should be noted that the sender misspelled the brand name as “Express” instead of “Xpress.”

In the replies, some online users shared that they also use GoGo Xpress for their deliveries but had not received any such texts from the delivery riders.

Other online users perceived it to be suspicious that the supposed staff is asking for client information.

One onlinw user, meanwhile, replied with an infographic against fake messages from the company itself.

This publication material, however, was an old one. It was released on Facebook on Aug. 6, 2020.

At that time, GoGo Xpress informed its clients about senders who are pretending to be its employees or staff to get their personal information.

This was similar to the text message Ligot tweeted.

“Please do not click any links, open any attachments and share any personal information like email, contact number, address and bank details,” GoGo Xpress said on the graphic attached to the post.

It advised its clients to report these messages instead via its official account or email at [email protected].

GoGo Xpress advisory against fake messages uploaded on August 6, 2020 (Facebook/GoGo Xpress)

GoGo Xpress has not issued a new statement about the matter.

This was not the first time its brand name was used for a similar scheme.

Last January and February, GoGo Xpress warned its clients against sketchy texts that informed them about fake promos and deliveries they did not order in the first place.

These advisories were issued in partnership with Shopee Philippines.

Several Filipinos, meanwhile, have reported that they are still receiving text spam from unknown senders about dubious job offers and promotions.

READ: Gretchen Ho, others still receiving spam text messages, job offers 

Cybersecurity firm Kaspersky said that these suspicious texts fall under a practice called “smishing.”

Trendmicro, another cybersecurity firm, defined smishing as “a form of phishing that uses mobile phones as the attack platform.”

RELATED: What to do if you receive spam job offer via text message