Everyone loves getting a package in the post, merely sometimes you lot go an particular you don’t remember ordering. Earlier you chalk upwardly an odd packet to an error on Amazon’s part, you should consider that information technology may be part of a brushing scam.




So, what is a brushing scam, and how does it work? Moreover, how does information technology bear on you and your life?


What Is a Brushing Scam?

A brushing scam is when an private or company selling a product on Amazon buys their own production and sends it to random people. The scam requires the scammer to send the packet to a legitimate proper noun and accost, and so they’ll utilise harvested information in club to complete the attack.


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A Cardboard Package at a Doorstep

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This data consists of simple details you’ve already provided, merely enough to create an Amazon business relationship in your name, identify orders, and go out reviews. Troubling, correct? This is the kind of threat that makes legitimate brands like TikTok using data mining a concern.


Once the brushing scammer buys a production under your name and accost, you’ll eventually become an Amazon parcel in the mail that you lot don’t think ordering. In that location’s a good reason y’all don’t recall it, though: you never placed the order in the first place!




Why Do Scammers Buy Their Ain Product for Other People?

Merely expect a minute—why on world are scammers ownership their own products for other people? In fact, why is it even chosen a “scam” at all when information technology sounds like Christmas came early instead?

The central hither is that the scammer isn’t operating out of the kindness of their own center. In fact, they’re doing it so that they can artificially inflate their product’s score with fake reviews. And to exercise that, they need an authentic name and address.


Take you ever taken a look at the reviews on an Amazon product, and noticed that some of them are labeled as a “verified purchase”? That’s considering the person purchased the product they’re reviewing through Amazon, and Amazon shows that off with the “verified purchase” tag.


Verified reviews have a lot more weight than non-verified ones. That’south considering they’re far more likely to come from a legitimate customer who owns the product and is giving an honest review. These reviews are more reliable to customers than reviews written past robots, every bit the latter volition spam v-star reviews in a bid to make the product more bonny.




Companies know the importance of verified five-star reviews so they want as many reviews equally possible. As such, some of them will create their own verified 5-star reviews to encourage real buyers to give their products a chance.

To accomplish this, the company gets a concur of some harvested names and addresses. They then make an Amazon account in that person’due south name and utilize information technology to purchase ane of their ain products. Now that the fake account has purchased the product, the company can use it to write a gleaming, verified five-star review to heave their product ratings.


From the perspective of the visitor, the scam is now a done deal. Yet, in that location’due south still a package on its manner to an unsuspecting person, and when information technology arrives, it creates a lot of confusion as to where it came from.


Equally one of many schemes inflating ratings, buyers are learning how to spot fake Amazon reviews and making the most of tools that distinguish the real from the fake reviews.




A Past Instance of a Brushing Scam

Information technology may sound like a bizarre scam that doesn’t run across any real-world use, but it’s actually common enough to see news coverage on the topic.


For example, in late 2020, the BBC reported that thousands of Americans were sent random packets of seeds through a brushing scam. What made the scam particularly worrisome was that the recipients had no thought what the seeds actually grew, which sparked warnings that nobody should attempt to plant them.

Afterwards this result, Amazon banned the auction of seeds from its website. No thing how hard the company cracks downwards on bad actors, however, there’s always someone still trying to trick the system.


And then, watch out for annihilation suspicious, particularly around special occasions. For case, Amazon Prime Day comes with some mutual scams y’all should be enlightened of.




Do Brushing Scams Use Your Money?


A Pile of One Dollar Bank Notes


It can be worrying to meet random packages come through the mail because information technology implies that someone may be enjoying a shopping spree on your credit bill of fare. However, you need not fear.


What separates a brushing scam from whatsoever other hacking methods that intermission into your bank account is the person paying for the goods. While near money-oriented scams ordinarily involve someone stealing your money, a brushing scam does not use your ain funds whatsoever.


When a company initiates a brushing scam, they apply their own funds to send you the item. They may take your name and address, but they typically don’t have your financial details and aren’t buying the items using your money.



Exercise You Have to Pay for Brushing Scam Items? Can Y’all Keep Them?

If you lot are the victim of a brushing scam, you can keep the item if you like. After all, there was technically null incorrect with the buy—the company paid for the goods and sent them to you lot. It’s not that much different than someone giving you a gift through Amazon.


When you don’t know the person who sent y’all the particular and the detail was both knowingly and deliberately sent to you, it’s known as an “unsolicited expert.” Countries usually accept laws nigh these appurtenances, and they ordinarily say that if you get one, you lot can go along it.


For example, the U.s.a. Postal Inspection Service piece on brushing scams says the following:


If you opened it and you similar information technology, y’all may continue it. By law, you lot may go on unsolicited trade and are under no obligation to pay for it.

Yous don’t even need to give the particular back to Amazon. Every bit per Amazon guidance on reporting brushing scams:


If y’all receive a bundle that you did not order and is not a souvenir, study it immediately. […] You don’t demand to return the item.

Still, exist really careful of the company trying to scam y’all a 2nd time. There’s a reason why countries take laws about unsolicited goods, and information technology’due south to protect y’all from a different kind of scam.


In this scam, a company will transport people an item for free, particularly something consumable. Then, the company will chase up the people it sent a product to, demanding payment for the production to avoid legal action. Sometimes the person has already consumed the item and feels obligated to pay the company dorsum for an particular they never actually wanted.

As such, keep an eye out for any correspondence from the visitor that sent you the item. They may try to fox you into thinking you need to pay for the goods they sent yous, simply as we covered before, you lot demand not fork out money for unsolicited items.


Some other common flim-flam to expect out for is fake Amazon emails with elaborate scams that can steal your money.




How to Report a Brushing Scam

If yous’d similar to written report the scam and get one back to the scammer, you lot can report it to Amazon. As per Amazon’s guidance that we linked to before:


If you ostend that the package addressed to you lot wasn’t ordered by you or anyone you know, report information technology to Customer Service.

Provide the following information:

  • List of order IDs (at least one lodge is required)
  • Number of unwanted packages received
  • Photograph of at to the lowest degree 1 shipping characterization (optional)
  • Whatever additional information to help the investigation

Yous don’t need to return the detail.

Amazon investigates reports of “brushing” and takes the appropriate activity on bad actors that violate our policies. Amazon may suspend or remove selling privileges, withhold payments, and work with law enforcement.

As such, if you want to stop the packages, get in contact with your country’s Amazon customer support branch and let them know what you lot received. If you tin can, send as much proof equally you can so that Amazon can rails down who sent you the item and get them removed from the website.




Brush Abroad Those Brushing Scams

If yous go a random Amazon package in the postal service, you might be a victim of a brushing scam. Fortunately, brushing scams don’t utilize your payment details, so it’south unlikely that your bank information has been compromised. However, it’s a skillful thought to report it so Amazon can take activeness confronting inflated reviews.