Hi all,
I checked the data base before writing this and noted that a similar issue arose in 2009. Well, it's happening again.
I recently ordered some tickets and was advised that they'd be delivered by DHL. A short time after, I received a couple of emails, one of which is reproduced below.
Bike | x |

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DHL Express Tracking Notification: Tue, 19 Jun 2012 09:17:14 +0100
Custom Reference: 0069426-836DGKH43A1 Tracking Number: 5A77-8263551489 Pickup Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2012 09:17:14 +0100 Service: AIR/GROUND Pieces: 1 |
Tue, 19 Jun 2012 09:17:14 +0100 - Processing complete successfully
PLEASE REFER TO ATTACHED FILE FOR DETAILED INFORMATION.
Shipment status may also be obtained from our Internet site in USA under http://track.dhl-usa.com or Globally underhttp://www.dhl.com/track
Please do not reply to this email. This is an automated application used only for sending proactive notifications
Thanks in advance,
DHL Express International Inc.
You'll see that Norton caught the virus and deleted the file - thank you.
I contacted DHL and their reply is as follows:
| 15:49 (1 hour ago) | |||
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Dear Ian
Thank you for contacting DHL Express.
Please accept our apologies, we have recently received a number of enquiries, of which yours is an example, regarding emails received purporting to come from DHL regarding a shipment. The emails generally advise of an error in shipping address or that they should be expecting to receive a parcel in 7 or 10 days and advise of a tracking number which does not relate to DHL. The emails also contain an attachment which is usually blocked by a computers security programme and cannot be opened.
It is extremely important that you do not open any attachment contained within these emails. This attachment contains a virus or other type of malicious file.
In general DHL does not send emails to our customers unless there is an investigation open for them, of which they will be aware, or they have requested email contact from customer services. In all cases, emails sent from DHL will be sent from a specific agent and will contain the Waybill, tracking or reference number to which the query relates.
Please note that the only known numbers used by DHL to track parcels look like those below:
1234567890 (10 digits, all numbers, no spaces) (some of the phishing scam emails give out a ten digit number, but please be advised this is fraudulent)
012345678910 (12 digits, all numbers – no dots or spaces)
(J)JD0002234567891011
0034567898765432101 (20 digits, all numbers)
849012345678987 (15 digits, all numbers)
ABC-DE-1234567 (DHL Global Forwarding)
Our security team are aware of these types of email and to aid in their investigations, please forward any suspicious email to spam@dhl.com before deleting from your system.
If you are expecting a parcel, we respectfully advise you to contact the sender to confirm the carrier and obtain the tracking number directly from them.
Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused. We accept no responsibility in these matters but assure you that this issue has been known to our Security Department for some years. DHL is not able to offer any individual investigations into the issue because DHL has nothing to do with the sourcing of these emails. We are not able to advise you in person of the outcome of our legal investigations, but please rest assured that we are working vigorously to resolve the problem.
If you have any further questions or queries, you can discuss these with Customer Services on 0844 248 0844.
Sincerely
UK Customer Focus
Contact for DHL Customer Services:
I've copied back to the ticket seller - BritishGP.co.uk (a Netherlands site), who hasn't yet despatched the tickets, as there must be some sort of link to the spammers, else how did they know I was expecting a delivery?
The bottom line is that Norton has a handle on it, but it's doing the rounds again.
## - before I could post this, an invalid HTML was removed. I hope it still makes sense. I can also confirm I've forwarded the offending emails to spam@dhl.com. ##