How Couriers Help Scammers

By | April 24, 2007
Bruce Schneier talks about how to get around blocks on U.S. eretailers refusing to ship to Russia: put the correct address but the wrong country (in this case Canada.)

Indonesian credit card fraudsters have long been doing this, usually putting the country as Singapore. I suspect they still do it.

Of course it’s a reflection of both the professionalism and the lack of thought of couriers. On the one hand they try to serve the customer; on the other hand they fail to recognise the scam that’ they’re unwittingly aiding. I was always amazed at how little they seem to consider their customer’s interests in this.

clipped from www.schneier.com

What happens next? The parcel travels to Canada, to the area to which the specified ZIP code belongs and there postal workers just see it’s not a Canadian address but Russian. They consider it to be some sort of mistake and forward it further, to Russia.

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