On April 8, 2008 I wrote a post called “Does Somebody Want to Transfer Millions of Dollars Into Your Account?“. Since I hate phishing scams and all other fraudulent uses of the Internet I always forward a copy of the suspicious e-mail to the companies that are being defrauded.
For example, at PayPal the e-mail address is spoof@PayPal.com, at eBay it’s spoof@eBay.com and at pretty much every other company it’s abuse@(companydomainname)
Another reason why I stay up too late
Late last night I received an e-mail supposedly from FedEx. I put the entire email at the end of this post so you can read it at your leisure. I naturally went to www.FedEx.com and found this:
“If you believe that you have received suspicious e-mail, or have any questions or concerns, please contact us immediately at 1.800.GoFedEx / 1.800.463.3339 or via e-mail at abuse@fedex.com”.
Being the nice person I am, I immediately forwarded that suspicious e-mail you’ll find below to abuse@FedEx.com. Guess what? Almost immediately I received, in my inbox, this delivery failure message:
“Hi. This is the qmail-send program at ______. I’m afraid I wasn’t able to deliver your message to the following addresses. This is a permanent error; I’ve given up. Sorry it didn’t work out. abuse@fedex.com: failed after I sent the message. Remote host said: 554 The message was rejected because it contains prohibited virus or spam content”
More than a surprise
That was a surprise. No, it was a shock! – how stupid can that be for FedEx to reject emails it tells you to send to them! Since I wasn’t completely frustrated I went ahead and called FedEx’s toll-free number 1.800.463.3339 at 1:03 am. Eventually, I got to speak to someone live in their customer service department. I explained exactly what happened and they told me that FedEx doesn’t accept spam.
So, I explained again why was trying to forward them this because someone was impersonating FedEx, but they told me abuse@fedex.com is the only e-mail address Fedex has to receive these complaints about scams. After I asked “doesn’t this sound silly that abuse@FedEx.com rejects all forwarded spam e-mails?”, the kind man I was speaking to put me on hold for a few minutes to see if he could find anything else out.
When he came back he told me that I had to wait until after 7 a.m. Central time to call the Technical Support Department at 1-877-339-2774 and maybe they can figure out how to email Fedex.
I called FedEx’s Technical Support Department this morning. They said that abuse@fedex.com is the only e-mail address Fedex has to receive these complaints. And they wanted me to call Customer Service again!
Oh well, I guess FedEx doesn’t really want to know who’s impersonating them and damaging their good name.
PS – here’s that email that FedEx won’t let me give them:
Subject: FedEX PARCEL DELIVERY NOTICE
From: “FedEx Online Team Management.”
Date: Tue, May 13, 2008 11:34 pm
Dear Customer!
We have been waiting for you to contact us for your Confirm able Package that is registered with us for shipping to your residential location.We had thought that your sender gave you our contact details.It may interest you to know that a letter is also added to your package.However, we cannot quote its content to you via email for privacy reasons.
We understand that the content of your package itself is a Bank Draft worth of $120,000.00 USD, FedEx do not ship money in CASH or in CHEQUES but Bank Drafts are shippable.The package is registered with us for mailing by your colleague, and your colleague explained that he is from the United States but he is here in Nigeria for a three (3) months Surveying Project as he works with a consultant firm in Nigeria West Africa We are sending you this email because your package is been registered on a Special Order.
What you have to do now, is to contact our Delivery Department for immediate dispatchment of your package to your residential address.Note that as soon as our Delivery Team confirms your informations, it will take only one working day (24 hours) for your package to arrive it’s designated destination.For your information, the VAT & Shipping charges as well as Insurance fees have been paid by your colleague before your package was registered.Note that the payment that is made on the Insurance, Premium & Clearance Certificates, are to certify that the Bank Draft is not a Drug Affiliated Fund (DAF) neither is it funds to sponsor Terrorism in your country. This will help you avoid any form of query from the Monetary Authority of your country.
However, you will have to pay a sum of �82GBP to the FedEx Delivery Department being full payment for the Security Keeping Fee of the FedEx company as stated in our privacy terms & condition page. Also be informed that your colleague wished to pay for the Security Keeping charges, but we do not accept such payment considering the facts that all items & packages that is registered with us have a time limitation and we cannot accept payment not knowing when you will be picking up the package or even responding to us.So we cannot take the risk to have accepted such payment in case of any possible demur rage.
Kindly note that your colleague did not leave us with any further information.We hope that you respond to us as soon as possible because if you fail to respond until the expiry date of the foremost package, we may refer the package to the Nigerian Commission for Welfare as the package do not have a return address.
Kindly contact the delivery department (FedEx Delivery Post) with the details given below:
FedEx Delivery Post
Contact Person:Daniel Christopher
Email:dchristopher1960@gmail.com
Tel: +2348053062492
Kindly complete the below form and send it to the email address given above.This is mandatory to reconfirm your Postal address and telephone numbers.
FULL NAMES:
TELEPHONE:
POSTAL ADDRESS:
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
Kindly complete the above form and summit it to the delivery manager on: dchristopher1960@gmail.com
As soon as your details are received, our delivery team will give you the necessary payment procedure so that you can effect the payment for the Security Keeping Fees. As soon as they confirm your payment receipt of �82GBP, they will not hesitate to dispatch your package as well as the attached letter to your residence. It usually takes 24 hours being an over night delivery service.
Note that we were not instructed to email you, but due to the high priority of your package we had to inform you as your sender did not leave us with his phone number because he stated that he just arrived Nigeria and he hasn’t fix his phone yet. We indeed personally sealed your Bank Draft and we found your email contact in the attached letter as the recipient of the foremost package.
Ensure to contact the delivery department with the email address given above and ensure to fill the above form as well to enable a successful reconfirmation.
Do not reply this email because this email account is not monitored.Send your details to:dchristopher1960@gmail.com
Yours Faithfully,
Mrs. Margaret Blaire.
FedEx Online Team Management.
All rights reserved. � 1995-2008
———————————————————————————————————-
This E-mail is only for the above addressees. It may contain confidential or Privileged information. If you are not an addressee you must not copy, distribute, disclose or use any of the information in it or any attachments.
———————————————————————————————————-
FEDEX INTL>>>
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