Last night, checking the spam folder for an email confirmation that went astray, I noticed an email with the subject line “UPS Label Error.” Gmail shows the first few words of a communication even if you don’t open it, so I also saw that the email began “We could not send USPS shipment you processed last week because…”
Couple of problems here:
1. I did not process any shipments last week. (Or the week before. Or the week before that.)
2. Although I readily admit that sending a USPS shipment with a UPS mailing label would result in an error, (a) see problem #1, and (b) neither shipments processed through the USPS nor those sent via UPS require me to state my email address as part of the mailing process. (In other words…either you’re employing psychics to track me down or that crystal ball technology has gotten a lot cheaper than I realized.)
3. The USPS wouldn’t bother to contact me about a package dropped off with a UPS shipping label on it. They’d either deliver it anyway or throw it away (and I’m giving even odds on those two options).
Beyond this, the fact that mousing over the sender’s name returned an email extension that looked something like “@jxpx.cpe.vi” didn’t inspire a great deal of confidence on my part. (Especially the ‘vi’ bit, which could mean Virgin Islands but probably means “virus” if not worse.) Didn’t click. Didn’t open. Did have a moment’s pity for people who do send a lot of packages by UPS and don’t think to mouse over a strange sender’s name (and yes, the email was from a woman’s name, not “USPS,” “UPS” or anything similarly business-oriented) before clicking through and giving their hard drive to *cough* charity.