Imposter scams are on the rise, with fraudsters posing as trusted institutions to steal personal information and money. In this episode of Mailin’ It!, we’re joined by Brian Coleman, program manager for mail fraud at the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, to break down the most common imposter scams, including phishing, smishing, and fake package delivery alerts. Learn how scammers manipulate their victims, the red flags to watch for, and the best ways to protect yourself from becoming a target. Tune in as we explore real cases, new scam tactics, and how the Postal Inspection Service is working to shut them down.
This week on Mailin’ It!, Brian Coleman of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service walks us through the world of imposter scams, a leading form of fraud that cost victims billions last year. From fake government officials to fraudulent package notifications, these scams exploit trust and pressure victims into giving up sensitive information. Brian shares how the Postal Inspection Service investigates these crimes, tips for identifying scams before they happen, and what to do if you think you’ve been targeted. Scammers are getting more sophisticated, making it harder than ever to tell what’s real and what’s a fraud, whether you’re looking to protect yourself or help others stay safe, this episode is packed with valuable insights.
Karla Kirby:
Hi everybody, and welcome to Mailin’ It!, the official podcast of the United States Postal Service. I'm Karla Kirby.
Jonathan Castillo:
And I'm Jonathan Castello.
Karla Kirby:
Wait, wait, Jonathan, how do we know it's really you?
Jonathan Castillo:
Ah, I see you're already in the spirit of this episode's theme, Karla, because today we're joined once again by our friends at the United States Postal Inspection Service to help us explore imposter scams, which also happens to be the theme of this year's National Consumer Protection Week that runs March 2nd through the eighth. Luckily, Karla knows it's really me because I'm here in studio with her, but unfortunately, when it comes to online communication, it's getting a lot more difficult for us to know who's on the other end of an email or text message. That's
Karla Kirby:
Right, Jonathan. Imposter Scams are on the rise and they can cause serious problems to their victims. Our guest for this episode is Brian Coleman, program manager for mail fraud in the Postal Inspection services criminal investigations unit, and he's joining us from Portland, Oregon. He's going to tell us more about how imposter scams work and how to avoid them. He'll also share some of his experiences from the field. Brian, welcome to mailing it.
Brian Coleman:
Hi guys. Thanks for having me. Really excited to be here.
Jonathan Castillo:
Brian, before we get into our conversation about National Consumer Protection Week and imposter scams, it would be great if you could just tell us a little bit about yourself. Let's start with how long have you been with the Postal Inspection Service?
Brian Coleman:
Sure. I joined the Postal Inspection Service in 2012. I worked for four years as a postal inspector in Anchorage, Alaska, primarily investigating mail theft. In 2016, my family and I moved down here to where I am right now in Portland, Oregon. And since then, I've primarily been a field inspector assigned to investigating frauds criminal fraud investigations. Right now my role is as the program manager for the mail fraud program for the agency as part of the Criminal Investigations Group at national Headquarters. So my current role has I wear a lot of different hats. I coordinate and plan the training for the, our mail fraud program for postal inspectors across the country. We do typically twice a year two week or one week at a time training for postal inspectors who work in mail fraud. We also do prevention and consumer outreach, which is exactly why I'm here today as part of talking about National Consumer Protection Week. But that kind of activity is not restricted to just that one week a year. We do consumer education and outreach activities year round. And beyond that, there's also the managing of our relationships with other law enforcement agencies or other groups, or what we call our partner agencies that have a stake in investigating and preventing fraud. So those are gonna be partnerships with local agencies in the United States. And we do have some cross-border partnerships also with law enforcement in Canada and Jamaica. So that's the role that I have right now.
Karla Kirby:
So, Brian, we've done episodes about National Consumer Protection Week in the past as a way of spotlighting important programs that help people avoid becoming victims of scams, fraud, and unfair business practices. Can you tell us your take on why the National Consumer Protection Week is so important?
Brian Coleman:
Absolutely. it's an essential part of what we do, educating the public. So, National Consumer Protection Week is actually an activity that that is led by the Federal Trade Commission, by the FTC and it is a way that government agencies also nonprofits and businesses get together and educate the public on topics like identity theft fraud, cybersecurity keeps the public up to date on the latest scams, which is especially important these days because increasingly, our scams involve online activities. So people are contacted by scammers via email or texts, or via social media. As technology evolves the way people work with it evolves, and it is becoming more and more, you know, prevalent these days, which is why it's used as an avenue by scammers in order to target victims.
Jonathan Castillo:
This year's focus is on imposter scams, and these are scams that usually involve criminals pretending to be someone they're not, in order to gain a person's trust. And then once they have that trust, as with most types of scams, the end game here is to steal people's information, their money, or often both. Can you walk us through how imposter scams generally work?
Brian Coleman:
Sure. So a victim becomes drawn in and becomes involved in a scam after they've been contacted by a, a person that is pretending to be something they're not. For example, they're pretending to be from a government agency from a, a nonprofit organization that the victim may or may not be familiar with. They might even pose as a local, like a utility provider. But generally the false I identity that the scammer chooses the false identity that the scammer chooses is usually going to be from an institution that, that people trust that they interact with that they believe in. As I mentioned before, increasingly that initial contact with a victim is something that happens electronically, whether it be via social media a text directly on their phone, or some other method of online communication. Traditionally imposter scams used to start with a phone call or even a, a letter or just an unsolicited piece of mail that people would receive. But more and more these days, that initial contact is going to happen online somehow.
Karla Kirby:
So, Brian, one thing I find interesting is that regardless of the type of scam we've talked about on past episodes, they all seem to start with some form of impersonation. It appears that that is a common tactic for connecting with victims.
Brian Coleman:
Absolutely. Like the imposter scam, we call it the imposter scam. We're really just describing the way the scam begins. If, if the entire scam were just the imposter scam, the scammer convinces a victim that they're from the IRS, and then they never ask for any money wouldn't be much of a scam. So the imposter scam is, is the initial hook, is the way that people that victims trust is obtained by the scammers, and then that leads on to whatever the scammer is going to convince the victim to do, usually involving money of some sort. So what's important is for people to know, for the public to know is when they receive an unsolicited call or message from someone that they, that they don't know to question it to, to absolutely to be skeptical and especially if those messages immediately come with a request for either sensitive information or for providing money, people need to be on the, on the lookout for things like that.
Jonathan Castillo:
Something I've always wondered is, you know, why is this impersonation technique so effective in manipulating people?
Brian Coleman:
Well, it kind of depends on the, the tactic that the, that the scammer is using. So, in, in some cases, for example, if the imposter if the scammer is creating some sort of a narrative, so a common old scam is that a victim would receive communication from someone pretending to be a lawyer. So they get a call or an email from an attorney informing them that they are they, they are the, the beneficiary of some inheritance that they didn't know about. So when there's a story like that, that's, that is interesting to people, and, and of course, I mean, who doesn't want to get the surprise call that they're inheriting money? You know, it's, it's something that they want to be true. So it's easier for the scammer to sort of string people along. And then the point of that is to gain their trust and then to get, you know, their bank account information, the victim thinks they're providing it in order to receive money, when in fact they're gonna lose money. You know, another tactic as opposed to the narrative is using and abusing people's trust in official institutions to either just to earn their trust or to intimidate them. So another common sort of imposter scam involves scammers claiming to be from the government, claiming to be from law enforcement or from the IRS and take, you know, putting themselves in a position where the victim is intimidated. They're afraid, oh, I have to do what this person says, because they're in a position of authority. So what happens is that I mean, the narrative, the intimidation, whatever it is, is frequently successful. Unfortunately statistics wise, I see in the first half of 2024 the FTC received nearly 360,000 reports of imposter scams. And that ends up being more than double the second most frequent fraud type reported. So the second most frequent fraud type that is reported to the FTC involves online shopping and negative review fraud. So more than twice the number of complaints as far as imposter scams go, and if we go back a year impostor scams were the most reported fraud type in 2023 with reported losses of $2.7 billion that year. And that the sad fact here is that most victims don't report these crimes. It's estimated that fewer than 5% of consumers actually report fraud. So if you look at the math there, the, the real losses in that case are just, are, they're staggering. So,
Karla Kirby:
Brian, that is a lot of money, and it's only a fraction of the actual amount. You mentioned a few examples of imposter scams earlier, but what are the most common ones?
Brian Coleman:
So the FTC tracks that, and according to the FTC some of the most commonly reported types of scams are copycat account security alerts. So, a victim receives a text claiming to be from their bank or from, you know, another institution saying their account has been compromised. It's not official, it's from a scammer. They're phony subscription renewals soliciting someone to pay for the renewal of something that they believe they're receiving, but they're not. It's a fake renewal. As always, we see fake giveaways discounts, sweepstakes, prizes, money to claim you've got bogus problems with law enforcement. So that call from the IRS saying, there's a problem with your taxes and you're gonna get arrested unless you pay us. One that we were talking about earlier that is, has just kind of come up recently, is voice impersonation. So this isn't something that is specifically tracked by the FTC that I'm aware, but I think it bears mentioning imposter scams utilizing ai computer software to, to generate a fake voice in order to fool someone in order to better, you know, gain their trust. But then I would like to bring it back to the, the final one, which is popular and it's ever more popular these days, which are made up package delivery issues. So that's been a real problem for us in the last couple of years.
Jonathan Castillo:
I actually just received a call the other day an imposter call that was telling me that I owed money for my college loan from 2002. And it just highlights kind of how many different ways these imposters are trying to get to us. But I'm actually really glad that you brought up that last type of imposter scam because it, it usually involves someone claiming to be from the United States Postal Service. And in fact, I was reading that just this past holiday season in 2024, the inspection service saw a dramatic uptick in phishing emails and these smishing texts, impersonating USPS and the general modus operandi was to use these messages saying that, you know, you had some unclaimed or undeliverable package waiting for you to really try and get people to respond and, you know, enter their personal banking information.
Brian Coleman:
Absolutely. That definitely hits close to home for us in the inspection service being part of the Postal Service it absolutely abuses the public's trust in what is one of the most trusted public institutions, the post office. So people get these, these texts the old way of doing it. So we've known for a long time about what we call phishing deceptive emails that have been commonly used by scammers for a long time. So more recently we have smishing, so that's a bit newer. It's the same idea, but the communication comes via a text message as opposed to via an email. And that is, it is definitely becoming more and more common. And it makes sense because the Postal Services package deliveries are increasing every year, you know, more and more of Postal Service business you know, is related to the delivery of, of packages of parcels. But then there are some scammers that'll even take it a step further and not only try and impersonate the Postal Service, but they will actually claim to be from the Postal Inspection Service.
Karla Kirby:
Well, that's gotta be interesting. I gotta tell you, similar to what Jonathan said, I have gotten the fishing and the smishing.
Brian Coleman:
Yeah.
Karla Kirby:
Well, those are definitely great points, but Brian, what are some of the best ways to spot someone trying to impersonate a Postal Service employee?
Brian Coleman:
Yeah, so these unsolicited text messages that people get, the, the Postal Service does not send unsolicited text messages. If you are getting updates about the tracking on a parcel and they're legitimate, it's because you signed up on your own for that service. So, if you're surprised by something like that, it's fake. It's not, it's not something you signed up for. It's not real. It's coming from the Postal Service doesn't, doesn't charge for tracking. So these unsolicited texts that talk about needing to make a payment to do something that's, that's fake Postal Service text messages, even when they are legitimate updates, they're never going to include a link. So if there's a link for you to click on that did not come from the Postal Service, that's gonna be fake. So we encourage people who receive false emails. So like the spam emails or the phishing emails that purport to be from the Postal Service we encourage people to forward those to to us at the inspection service. The email address is spam@uspis.gov for US postal inspection service gov. And likewise, if people receive smishing texts, they can forward that to 7 7 2 6, or they can, can email it to that same email address spam at usps gov.
Jonathan Castillo:
Now, Brian, aside from these bad actors trying to impersonate USPS, what are some general red flags that, that we all should be on the lookout for so that you don't get caught up in a scam like this?
Brian Coleman:
Yeah, so look, look at the source. You're receiving an email or a text check, check where it's coming from very frequently scammer text or emails in particular it, it says it's from a business, but if you look at the email address, it's at Gmail address or some other address. Government emails are always gonna come from an address that ends in.gov. So that's the first thing to look at. If it, if it looks official, if it's claiming to be from a government institution, it's gotta come from a.gov email address text messages and phone numbers that are coming from outside the us. That is absolutely a red flag. Spelling grammatical mistakes that's poorly written is probably not official. All. And all of that said, if you receive a suspicious message, never, never click on the link. Even, you know, some, some people will wanna click on it because they're curious. They wanna see where it goes, even if they, they, they think it is from a scammer, they might still check it out. Some of those links are, are malicious. So it might take you to a website that is controlled by the scammers where the purpose of the website is just to obtain your login information or whatever other sensitive information you provide on the website. In some other edge cases, it's not super common, but some links, depending on your device, could send you to an address that will, that could infect your device. It could install malware on your device. So never click on, on links that come in suspicious emails or text.
Karla Kirby:
Well, it's unfortunate you have to be skeptical about just about everything. Yep. So, Brian, are scammers using any new techniques that we should be aware of? You mentioned the ai. What else is kind of on the rise in the scam, you know, world?
Brian Coleman:
Yeah, so this is an interesting one that we've started to see in the last couple of years, and it's called a brushing scam. And how this works from the perspective of a, of a consumer or a victim, is they receive a package that they didn't order. They don't, they don't know anything about it. And in the package will be some low cost item, like a, like a USB cable or a charging cord, something that's just, you know, worth a dollar, a very low value thing. And what is happening here is that there are, so, there are inter, it's usually international, it's third party sellers that have found the consumer's address. And the purpose of this package is to establish with an online marketplace that something has been delivered, has actually been ordered so that the scammer can provide a fake review. That's kind of convoluted. I hope that makes sense. The whole purpose of mailing a person this cheap thing has nothing to do with really the victimizing the person directly. The whole purpose was just to have an online merchant register. Yes, this parcel was delivered. So now you can write a review of it. So that's, this is all about fake reviews in order to fraudulently boost ratings and sales numbers for these unscrupulous online merchants. So there are, there are two victims in this case. You've got the person who received the strange package. That can mean a degree of identity theft. I mean, their name and their address was used as, as part of this scam. But the, the point of the scam isn't really to steal their identity. It is to defraud the people who are depending on online reviews in order to purchase things. So it is, it is complicated. We do see it really pretty frequently that, you know, people call us about it 'cause they got a thing. They don't, they don't know what it means. They think it's strange that that's what it is. If you get that unsolicited tiny cable in the mail is probably a brushing scam.
Jonathan Castillo:
Brushing is definitely a new one for me. Brian. I, I don't think I've ever heard of that before. So, you know, what should people do if something like this happens to them? They get one of these unsolicited packages, right?
Brian Coleman:
So if you get something like this I mean, sometimes you might get a bill along with the thing you didn't order the thing, you don't need to pay for it. If if it comes with a, and a package that has a return address, it's not something you ordered and you haven't even opened it, you can just return it via the Postal Service. You can return it to sender. There's no charge to the customer to do that, to just give it back to the postal carrier or take it back to the post office, say, I'm returning this, I don't want it. If you did open it honestly, it's, it's up to you if you can use that USB charger you can
Karla Kirby:
So if someone thinks they, or someone they know have been a victim of any type of imposter scam, we have phishing, smishing, brushing, you know, what can they do and how can they get help?
Brian Coleman:
First and foremost, you need to tell somebody particularly if it's been going on for a while tell, tell friends or family members, people are re are reluctant to do that 'cause they're embarrassed that they've fallen victim to a scam. But it's important, it's important to let people know that such a thing has happened. You can file a report online, so on our website, uspis.gov or you can call the inspection service. The 800 number I mentioned before, that's 8 7 7 8 7 6 2 4 5 5. Most of our tips and complaints come from complaints that were filed through the website, but you can also call that number if you're more comfortable doing that if, if you have become a victim of a scam, or actually, if not, it's a good idea to frequently change passwords to your online accounts regularly. Certainly if you're a victim, change everything as soon as you can. If not, still a good idea to regularly update your passwords. I advise people to use multiple email accounts. I've done this personally for years, and I find it's very helpful. I have one email address that I use for, for business, for any kind of online, any kind of e-commerce or communication I'm doing with a business. I have one email address, and then there's another email that's my personal email address that can help you filter things pretty well because your e-commerce email address is the one that is, is more likely to be you know, compromised over time as we see data breaches those, those email addresses sort of get out and about. So if you keep your personal email separate you, you can have a little more faith in the, in the emails that are sent to that email address. If you're concerned about identity theft, about potential identity theft, where you do believe that you are a victim, you can obtain your free credit reports online. You can sign up for credit monitoring services that'll I'll alert you to changes in your credit score or things that happen as far as your credit report is concerned. And bottom line, like I sort of started out saying this, people should never feel ashamed to come forward if, if they're victims. So these scams, online scams, and I mentioned before, data breaches, they're increasingly common. So practically everyone's data has been exposed at one time or another. And it's, it's very rare that the scams are, are personal. If you receive a solicitation the scammers are generally, they're generally not targeting you. They're casting a very wide net just auto generating phone numbers, email addresses. It's, it's rarely about you. And the inspection service we hear in the postal inspection service we work on spotting these scams and letting people know, but we rely very heavily on the public to be our eyes and ears in these cases. So it's important to report it to law enforcement if something like this happens to you so that we're aware of what's going on. And that's, that's how we track the trends and know what to warn people about is we hear from victims.
Jonathan Castillo:
And Brian, where one last time, where can people go if they wanted to report one of these incidents?
Brian Coleman:
So our website is u s.gov. There is an online reporting form, but there there's also a lot of good just prevention information on our website. There's education educational material that advises people of the same kind of things I talked about today. What to do if you become a victim of a scam red flags to look out for what the common trends are. So there's a lot of good information on our website. I absolutely advise people to check it out.
Jonathan Castillo:
Fantastic. A lot of great information. Brian. I can't tell you how much we appreciate you coming on and, and going through all of this with us.
Brian Coleman:
Absolutely.
Karla Kirby:
Yeah, definitely some great information for the listeners and just for me in general. I mean, you know, you have to definitely be on the lookout and be, be skeptical.
Brian Coleman:
Yeah, yeah. That's, that's what you gotta do, unfortunately.
Karla Kirby:
Well, Brian, thanks so much for joining us, especially all the way from Portland. We appreciate it.
Brian Coleman:
Great. You guys are welcome. It was it was my pleasure. Thanks for having me.
Jonathan Castillo:
Thanks Brian.
Karla Kirby:
And now it's time for, Did You Know!
Jonathan Castillo:
Did you know that parts of the Iditarod Trail used for the annual sled dog race were once used for carrying mail in the late 19th and early 20th century? Letter carriers and their dog teams regularly moved mail on trails in Alaska, although there were obviously people living in Alaska before the 19 hundreds. Regular demand for mail delivery didn't really happen until the gold rushes of the late 18 hundreds and early 19 hundreds that brought large numbers of prospectors. These new inhabitants of Alaska relied on the mail to connect with friends, family, and business partners back home, and mail delivery relied on sleds that could be pooled by a team of dogs, 20 or more miles per day through the snow. These dogs have thick coats of fur to keep them warm during temperatures as low as minus 60 degrees. Once airplanes became a thing, sled dogs service wasn't needed as much. But the trails are still there and are used by the Iditarod and other sled dog races. It's such a cool part of postal history that the National Postal Museum has an actual Alaskan dog sled on display that was used by letter carriers in the 1920s and thirties. They would load it with mail to be delivered on 160 mile route between a region called Circle and the Village of Eagle in Alaska. And that wraps up this edition of Did You know
Jonathan Castillo:
Karla, what a great episode today. And, and, and you know, as always, when the inspection service stops by, we got so much helpful information on staying safe out there on how to protect ourselves. And really as we mark National Consumer Protection Week, Brian showed us a lot of key ways that we can stay ahead of these imposter scams, like he mentioned, smishing and fishing and brushing, right.
Karla Kirby:
Great points. I mean, you know, never disappoints with these episodes, always picking up something new. I think two things that he raised are very important for our listeners. One, don't be embarrassed. I recently had a family member that was subject to one of these scams and didn't mention it for, you know, embarrassment reasons, but ended up being very costly monetarily. So, you know, tell somebody, get involved, send the information in. As Brian mentioned, you can just forward the information spam@usps.gov or if you're getting the text, just forward 'em to 7 7 2 6. It doesn't take a lot of effort, but you don't know what you can do down the line as far as helping someone else. But again, very good information. And that's all for this episode of Mailing It. Don't forget to subscribe to mailing it wherever you get your podcast to make sure you don't miss the next episode. And follow along on Instagram @USPostalService, X @usps, and on Facebook.