The South African Post Office, or SAPO for short, is a right old mess.

That’s not exactly breaking news, because it’s been put to the test numerous times, and failed woefully.

Given that Christmas is almost around the corner, and the first tinsel will be hung in shopping centres soon, you may have to deal with parcel delivery at some point.

Because of this, SAPO is warning South Africans about a new scam aimed at defrauding clients. Via MyBroadband, here’s how it works:

• The scammers send an SMS informing them their parcel cannot be delivered because VAT needs to be paid on the parcel.
• The SMS contains a link to a web page where they are requested to deposit money into a bank account.
• This bank account belongs to the criminals. This means the victim will lose their money if they make a deposit.

The SMS will look as follows:

The date may change, but the gist remains the same.

SAPO has made it clear that it will not require a bank deposit ahead of any parcel collection:

“If VAT or any other fees are payable on a parcel, this is paid at the time when the parcel is delivered or collected,” the SA Post Office said.

Where the Post Office has the cellphone number of the recipient, the customer will receive an SMS requesting him or her to collect the parcel at a specific Post Office branch.

The SMS will not request that funds be deposited into an account.

Even if you avoid the scam, and you actually have a parcel waiting to be collected, do you have any idea what VAT or fees will need to be paid before you can take your goodies home?

Worse still, do you want to be forced to deal with SAPO at all? I know I don’t.

We have no advice when it comes to sending and receiving local parcels, but we can help you out with international goodies. Postbox Courier allows you to order products from overseas (even those that don’t deliver to South Africa), and have them arrive at your desk here in South Africa without any of the hassle of customs, VAT, and other headaches.

You can request a quote for free, and if you’re satisfied, sign up and get cracking:

Postbox Courier works out every cost incurred before the parcel arrives, so you know what you’re in for, and you’ll never have to worry about dealing with more red tape.

Also, and I cannot say this enough, stop making payments into random bank accounts based off an SMS.

[source:mybroadband]