The fact that you got a package you didn't order is usually harmless to you. It violates eBay policy to send unsolicited merchandise to customers or falsify reviews and can result in eBay restricting sellers' accounts or suspending them from the site.Įxperts also say it's difficult to quantify the frequency of such scams because it can be hard for companies to know whether reviews are fake, and scams often go unreported by consumers. Amazon would not say how how many brushing scams have been found on the site or how many sellers have been removed due to these scams.Īn eBay spokesperson said in an email that brushing schemes 'do not appear to be highly prevalent' on the site.

'Third-party sellers are prohibited from sending unsolicited packages to customers and we take action on those who violate our policies, including withholding payments, suspending or removing selling privileges, or working with law enforcement,' an Amazon spokesperson said in an email. But 'the has long gone after marketers that use fake reviews,' said David Vladeck, a former director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection and a law professor at Georgetown University.Īmazon says its policy prohibits sellers sending unsolicited merchandise to customers, and that sellers can be removed from the site for doing so. It's not illegal to send customers unordered merchandise. The agent looked at Blinn's account and found nothing wrong with it. She obviously didn't know about it,' she said. Blinn notified Amazon of the issue, but a customer service agent 'didn't really understand what I was saying. 'Every two weeks.I get another package in the mail of just random stuff I never ordered,' she said. Jen Blinn of Thousand Oaks, California, told CNN Business she has been receiving random packages since June, including most recently a briefcase, a backpack, a hair straightener and a coffee-cup warmer. Unsuspecting recipients have also found boxes with goods ranging from dog pooper-scoopers to power cords to soap dispensers on their doorsteps. They resurfaced in headlines last summer, when all 50 states issued warnings about mysterious, unsolicited packages of seeds that people across the nation received in the mail.īut it's not just seeds. But we all need to be concerned about the scams affecting reviews we rely on when buying products.īrushing scams reportedly took off on e-commerce sites in China around five years ago. You don't need to worry that anything bad has happened to you or will happen to you if you get a package that might be part of a brushing scam, experts say. In many cases, there's no return address. If you're on the receiving end, you usually aren't charged for the purchase and your real account isn't hacked - but you are left in the dark as to who is repeatedly sending the mystery packages. Sending an item (even the wrong one) creates a tracking number, and when the package is delivered, it enables brushers to write a verified review. Then, instead of actually mailing the item for which they want to post a review, the brushers will send a cheap, often lightweight item that costs less to ship. So they'll use a fake account to place gift orders and address them to a random person whose name and address they find online. To be able to post the reviews, these so-called 'brushers' need to trick the site into making it appear that a legitimate transaction took place. Here's how these scams work: Third-party sellers on Amazon, eBay and other online marketplaces pay people to write fake, positive reviews about their products, or do it themselves.

The Federal Trade Commission and cyber experts have been warning consumers about these deliveries, which can be part of something known as 'brushing' scams.

But some people are dealing with a different problem altogether: getting weird stuff like hair clippers, face creams and sunglasses they never even ordered at all. NEW YORK - Most people who buy things online just have to worry about their deliveries being delayed or never arriving. Agriculture officials in California and other states issued warnings about unsolicited shipments of foreign seeds and advised people not to plant them.

Didn t receive amazon order