Police, feds warn of scam involving mailed USB drives

CRAFTON, Pa. — Federal investigators are looking into bizarre reports of thumb drives being mailed to individuals from unknown senders.

A local woman is among the recipients, according to police.

The Crafton Borough Police Department recently put out a warning to the public after that resident reported receiving the drive in a package last week.

The package also contained a “PDF manual” stating, “if you put the USB in your computer and a pop-up window appears with ‘warning this may be a virus’ please do not reformat. A small percentage of people are getting that error message and there is not a virus. This mean you may have an older model of software or computer, but everything is fine. Click CANCEL instead! You can then go to the drive on your computer to get the files.”

According to Crafton police, it was determined that the USB drive contained a “harmful type of malware,” and the case was referred to federal investigators.

Channel 11 reached out to the United States Postal Inspection Service. A spokesman said they are investigating numerous reports from various locations across the country.

Postal Inspector John Wiegand stressed that people should never, under any circumstances, insert a mysterious hard drive, disc or other device.

“It can be dangerous for you, dangerous for your identity, dangerous for your computer,” Wiegand said. “So we encourage people: don’t plug something in if you don’t know where it came from.”

Wiegand said he isn’t currently aware of anyone who has actually fallen victim by inserting the dangerous drives, but it’s possible a victim is out there.

Anyone who has received unknown devices is encouraged to call the FBI and/or the United States Postal Inspection Service.

The FBI’s Pittsburgh field office can be reached at 412-432-4000. To report a scam to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, call 877-876-2455.

Wiegand said it’s early on in the investigation, and right now it’s unclear if these reports could all be connected to the same sender.

He said investigators are right now in a “data-collecting phase,” and are encouraging anyone with information to come forward.

“The more information we have, the more likely we are to figure out where this is coming from and how it’s going about, and really get that investigation off the ground.”

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