A fake email claiming to be from New Zealand Post has emerged which asks for payments so parcels can be released from warehouses.
The email, which has been received by several people in Christchurch, is targeted at people waiting for a parcel to be delivered due to delays caused by Covid-19.
It asks the recipient to confirm a payment of $1.95 for packages that were "waiting for delivery" to be released from the depot.
The scam comes as New Zealand Post has been experiencing major delivery delays in recent weeks due to high demand from online shopping during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Four weeks' worth of purchases were frozen during level 4, meaning in level 3 a surge of deliveries overwhelmed courier companies across New Zealand.
CourierPost, owned by NZ Post, still had 150,000 parcels from the start of level 3 - almost four weeks ago - which have not been delivered.
Last week, CourierPost was still receiving about 300,000 parcels each day, or 200 a minute, which surpassed usual demand during the Christmas period.
Courier companies and retailers have begged customers to show them some grace due to the circumstances and not to take out their frustration on courier drivers or call centre staff.
In the first two weeks of level 3, CourierPost received more than 3.5 million parcels.
More than 3.2 million have been delivered but they could not all move in one go. The company was processing 24 hours a day to catch up, with hundreds of extra vans and staff.
- Bea Gooding and NZ Herald
