NEW YORK (CNN) – Most people who buy things online just have to worry that their deliveries are delayed or never arrive. But some people face a completely different problem: getting weird things, such as haircuts, face creams, and sunglasses that they didn’t even order at all.
The Federal Trade Commission and cyber experts have warned consumers about these deliveries, which may be part of something known as “brushed” scams.
Here’s how these scams work: Third-party sellers on Amazon, eBay, and other online markets pay people to write fake positive reviews about their products or do it themselves. In order to post reviews, these so-called “brushers” must fool the site to make it appear that a legitimate transaction has taken place. So they will use a fake account to place gift orders and address them to a random person whose name and address can be found online. Then, instead of emailing the article for which they want to post a review, brushes will send a cheap, often easy, article that costs less to ship.
Submitting an article (even the wrong one) creates a tracking number, and when the package is delivered, it allows users to write a verified review. If you are receiving, you are usually not charged for the purchase and your real account is not hacked, but you remain in the dark about who is repeatedly sending the mysterious packages. In many cases, there is no return address. You don’t have to worry that something bad has happened to you or will happen to you if you receive a package that could be part of a brushing scam, experts say. But we all need to be concerned about scams that affect the reviews we rely on when buying products.
Brushing scams allegedly started on e-commerce sites in China about five years ago. They reappeared in headlines last summer, when all 50 states issued warnings about mysterious and unsolicited packages of seeds that people across the country received in the mail.
But it’s not just seeds. Unsuspecting recipients also found boxes of goods, from dog scoops to power cords to soap dispensers on their doorsteps.
Jen Blinn of Thousand Oaks, Calif., Told CNN Business that she has received random packages since June, most recently a briefcase, a backpack, a hair straightener and a cup of coffee.
“Every two weeks … I receive another package in the mail with random things that I never ordered,” she said. Blinn notified Amazon about the problem, but a customer service agent “didn’t really understand what I was saying. Obviously, she didn’t know about it,” she said. The agent looked at Blinn’s account and found nothing wrong with him.
It is not illegal to send customers unordered goods. Except [Federal Trade Commission] has long since gone after marketers who use fake reviews, “said David Vladeck, former director of the FTC’s Office of Consumer Protection and a law professor at Georgetown University.
Amazon says its policy prohibits sellers from sending unsolicited merchandise to customers and that sellers can be removed from the site to do so.
“Third-party sellers are prohibited from sending unsolicited packages to customers, and we take action against those who violate our policies, including withholding payments, suspending or removing sales privileges, or cooperating with law enforcement,” an Amazon spokesman said in a statement. e-mail. Amazon would not say how many brushed scams were found on the site or how many sellers were removed because of these scams.
An eBay spokesman said in an email that brushing schemes “do not appear to be widespread” on the site. It violates eBay’s policy of sending unsolicited merchandise to customers or falsifying reviews, and may result in eBay restricting sellers’ accounts or suspending them from the site.
Experts also say it is difficult to quantify the frequency of these scams, as it can be difficult for companies to know if the reviews are false and the scams are often unreported by consumers.
The fact that you received a package that you did not order is usually harmless to you. The harm is to people who rely on reviews when deciding on a purchase, said Chris McCabe, a former Amazon policy enforcement investigator tasked with stopping scams and fraud. He is now a consultant for the sellers on the site.
The real losers here are consumers who probably believe many of these false positive reviews or this artificial liner of reviews, because they could see 100 positive reviews and then there can only be 60 or 70 of them that are legitimate.
–Chris McCabe
“The real losers here are consumers who probably believe many of these false positive reviews or this artificial lining of reviews, because they could see 100 positive reviews and then there can only be 60 or 70 of them that are legitimate.” he said.
The probability of a consumer buying a product that has five reviews is 270% higher than the probability of buying a product with zero reviews, according to a 2017 report by Northwestern University’s Spiegel Research Center.
Some fake reviews are also run by Facebook groups, where sellers give buyers money if they write positive reviews about products, McCabe said. Amazon and Facebook should work together to counter these groups, he said.
An Amazon spokesman said the company reviews more than 10 million reviews each week to try to prevent fake ones from being published, and that it provides details of its investigations to social media companies “so they can stop these bad actors from abusing the platforms.” their”.
A Facebook spokesman said in an email that when the company is told about groups that could encourage fake reviews, it reviews them and removes them if it violates its policies.
Unwanted sheets and Shiatsu massages
For consumers, unexpected deliveries can be annoying. The packages that Ashanté Nicole never ordered began arriving in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 2019.
IPhone and portable car chargers. An iPad case. A heated shiatsu massage. A nail brush and a dryer. It was. A mattress cover. A floppy fish toy.
They had no return addresses, so Nicole wasn’t sure who was sending the packages. She reached for Amazon to try to stop them from coming, but they kept reaching her doorstep.
“It was a little worrying because I don’t know who has my information,” she said. “I don’t know what they want to send me. It’s like they could send something illegal and then I have problems, because I didn’t know who that person was or what they were sending me.”
If you receive goods that you did not order, it could mean that the scammers created an account on your behalf or took over your account, an FTC spokesman said in an email. Scammers may even have created new accounts in other names related to your address, allowing them to post a lot of seemingly real reviews.
“We recommend that you track your online shopping accounts. If you notice an activity that is not yours, report it to the site immediately and consider changing your password for that site,” the spokesman said.
Nicole feels she’s done everything she can, alerting Amazon every time unwanted packages from the retailer reach her doorstep.
“I can’t do anything but tell Amazon every time it happens. And that didn’t do much, “she said.
Amazon declined to comment directly on Nicole and Blinn’s accounts, but said that if a customer receives an unsolicited package, they should contact Amazon’s customer service team.
Nicole said she hopes Amazon will do more to stop brushing and ban sellers from scams.
“I just think they need to be a little more concerned about closing those stores and making sure those vendors can’t use the platform.”
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