The ‘Signed for’ Scam

The ‘Signed for’ Scam

Have you received unsolicited anonymous mail containing — Nothing?

     I recently received a small yellow padded envelope by second class ‘Royal Mail Signed ForTM’ delivery. I was out when it was first delivered and I had the choice of going down to the sorting office in the town some miles away, or requesting that the package be re-delivered on  the next available day. I chose the latter as the least inconvenient; I had only to stay in the house till the package arrived. 

     It was addressed to “The Manager”, but I signed my usual squiggle on the little electronic box the postie held out for me. Inside there was nothing. Figuring that the operation would cost the sender over £1 (including envelope and franking), I began to wonder what the purpose was. I went online to search for similar experiences. 

     One blogger posted the suggestion that the hidden reason was harmless enough, simply that of inflating apparent turnover of online sales to impress clients or competitors. Well, I saluted the ingenuity of both the poster and the blogger, for I had not come up with any cogent explanation of my own (not that I had tried that hard).

     Then I came across the suggestion that the scam is more sinister and works as follows. An innocent online customer buys and pays for an item and is given the ‘tracking number’ (in this case KK461028710GB). The scammer posts an empty package to an arbitrary addressee who innocently signs for the package before opening it and finding it empty. The ‘mark’, waiting in vain for his item, eventually checks with Royal Mail who tell him (to his surprise) that the item has been delivered and shows the irrelevant signature. No redress!  

     The scammer no doubt trusts that the innocent addressee, as he is little affected, will forget the incident. In order to frustrate that expectation I post this here and invite comments.