Recommendations from Latvijas Pasts for successful and safe Christmas mail and online shopping

23.11.2023

The end of the year is the busiest season for item delivery because of the growing volume of e-commerce and Black Friday, Cyber Monday and other deals offered by worldwide online stores. Latvijas Pasts advises consumers not to leave shopping in domestic and international online stores until the last minute, and to send Christmas greetings and presents on time both in Latvia and abroad. As various fraudster activities are also on the rise during this period, Latvijas Pasts directs consumers’ attention to recommendations on how to protect themselves.

Latvijas Pasts recommendations for sending items successfully:

• Do not put off shopping until the last minute!
• Fill in the name, surname and address of the recipient correctly, as well as specify the postal code and mobile phone number! If the postal code is indicated on the item incorrectly, the item will reach the addressee, but it will travel longer as items are primarily sorted based on the postal code specified. Customers can look up the addresses of recipients in Latvia in the Check an Address section of the Latvijas Pasts website at www.pasts.lv.
• Collect your item from the parcel locker or post office promptly, so you free up space for next items!

In order for the item to reach the addressee before the upcoming holidays, the company encourages you to prepare the item for sending in time. Latvijas Pasts will deliver the last items before Christmas in Latvia on the 22^nd of December, and before the New Year – on the 29^th of December. When sending items to countries in the European Union, we invite you to plan dispatch no later than the beginning of December, but to countries on other continents it is preferable to send items by the end of November. When planning the desired time for item delivery, the distance to the addressee’s country should be taken into account: the further the destination, the longer it will take for the item to arrive.

It is important to make sure that the stamps of a suitable face value are affixed to the Christmas greetings: if the item is prepared for sending in the post office, the needed value will be accurately determined by the postal employees, but if the sender affixes the stamps himself or herself, it is recommended to check the information in the Pricelist published on the website of Latvijas Pasts, or use the available service rate Calculator, which is a handy tool for calculating the postage for sending an item.

As international postal items are mostly carried by passenger airplanes, air carriers impose various prohibitions on air mail for security reasons: you may not send a range of household items such as perfumes, batteries and lighters. Each country may also have established additional prohibitions on the acceptance of certain goods as postal items: before preparing a cross-border item for shipping, check whether the selected item is allowed to be imported into the country concerned. This information is available in the Manual for Acceptance of International Postal Items published on the website of Latvijas Pasts.

Please keep in mind that it is prohibited to place money, securities, precious metals, jewels and jewellery in letter-post items: if prohibited goods and items, including money, are detected, they may be confiscated by competent authorities on any section of the item shipping route.

With the increase in e-commerce and the volume of items sent, various fraudster activities such as asking customers in text messages or e-mails to clarify the postal item data allegedly on the Latvijas Pasts website or offering customers in social networks to buy items that have not been collected from Latvijas Pasts at a bargain price are also on the rise. We would like to notify you that Latvijas Pasts never asks customers to enter bank account or payment card data via text messages or e-mails, or to confirm transactions with the Smart-ID/code calculator code. Similarly, Latvijas Pasts never organises sales of unclaimed items.

How can you protect yourself from fraudsters?

• If you receive an e-mail or text message with suspicious content, be sure to check the sender’s e-mail address. The Latvijas Pasts e-mail addresses always end with @pasts.lv.
• The name of the website of Latvijas Pasts is www.pasts.lv.
• Do not click on suspicious links in e-mails or text messages.
• If you are waiting for a postal item, check its status using secure tools, such as https://pasts.lv/lv/kategorija/sutijumu_sekosana/.
• Do not disclose your personal data, including your name, surname, ID number or bank account number and card details either by e-mail or over the phone.
• If you are in doubt about the truthfulness of the information received, please contact the Latvijas Pasts Customer Centre by calling +371 67008001, +371 27008001 or sending an e-mail to info@pasts.lv.

Latvijas Pasts reminds you that customer data are safe, and no case of data leakage has been detected in the company. Taking into account the increased fraudster activity, Latvijas Pasts is fortifying and modernising its IT security systems in light of the surge in fraudulent activity in order to prevent such hazards.

About SJSC Latvijas Pasts

Latvijas Pasts ensures the widest availability of postal services in more than 600 post offices throughout Latvia. The company provides the universal postal service, commercial transport, express mail, payment, press subscription, retail and philatelic services. Latvijas Pasts is a wholly state-owned company with around 2,500 employees.

Additional information:

Laila Kļaviņa | Head of External Communications

E-mail: pr@pasts.lv; laila.klavina@pasts.lv

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