Current:Home > ScamsDid you receive an unsolicited Temu or Amazon package? It might be a brushing scam. -Infinite Edge Capital
Did you receive an unsolicited Temu or Amazon package? It might be a brushing scam.
View
Date:2025-04-15 16:19:56
A Minnesota woman received a box filled with baby reveal balloons from Amazon. A family in Illinois had dozens of boxes from Temu delivered to their doorstep, including military hats and cameras. And like many others around the U.S. who have gotten a surprise shipment of seemingly random goods, neither had ordered the items.
Consumer protection experts say an unwanted e-commerce order can indicate a so-called brushing scam — a technique some unscrupulous online retailers use to generate fake reviews for their products. The offender is typically a third-party seller on a major e-commerce platform looking to achieve verified merchant status, which enables the seller to write products reviews on someone else's behalf.
The scams often involve a foreign company obtaining someone's address that they found online and then delivering products to their home, according to the Better Business Bureau. Josh Planos, a spokesman for the BBB, advises consumers who receive unsolicited products to document the incidents and contact retailers directly to get deliveries stopped.
"They intend to make it appear that you wrote a glowing online review of their merchandise and that you are a verified buyer of that merchandise," the BBB stated in an alert. "They then post a fake, positive review to improve their products' ratings, which means more sales. The payoff is highly profitable from their perspective."
If you received an unsolicited package from Amazon, Temu or any other retailer, here are steps the BBB recommends to protect your personal information.
- Notify the retailer and ask them to investigate any fraudulent purchases
- Try to contact the sender and ask them to remove any phony reviews written in your name
- Check your online ecommerce accounts for recent orders
- Consider having future packages sent to another location
- Change your online account passwords
- Monitor your credit reports and credit card statements
- In:
- Scam Alert
- Better Business Bureau
Khristopher J. Brooks is a reporter for CBS MoneyWatch. He previously worked as a reporter for the Omaha World-Herald, Newsday and the Florida Times-Union. His reporting primarily focuses on the U.S. housing market, the business of sports and bankruptcy.
TwitterveryGood! (5765)
Related
- How to watch the 'Blue Bloods' Season 14 finale: Final episode premiere date, cast
- McDonald's faces lawsuit over scalding coffee that left woman with severe burns
- Quaalude queenpin: How a 70-year-old Boca woman's international drug operation toppled over
- Surveillance video prompts Connecticut elections officials to investigate Bridgeport primary
- A White House order claims to end 'censorship.' What does that mean?
- A Danish artist submitted blank frames as artwork. Now, he has to repay the museum
- Grain spat drags Ukraine’s ties with ally Poland to lowest point since start of Russian invasion
- At 91, Georgia’s longest serving sheriff says he won’t seek another term in 2024
- Justice Department, Louisville reach deal after probe prompted by Breonna Taylor killing
- QDOBA will serve larger free 3-Cheese Queso sides in honor of National Queso Day
Ranking
- The Grammy nominee you need to hear: Esperanza Spalding
- Syrian President Bashar Assad arrives in China on first visit since the beginning of war in Syria
- Booze, brawls and broken sharks: The shocking true story behind the making of 'Jaws'
- Teen rescued after getting stuck dangling 700 feet above river on California's tallest bridge
- Tom Holland's New Venture Revealed
- Russian strikes cities in east and central Ukraine, starting fires and wounding at least 14
- 'Concerns about the leadership' arose a year prior to Cavalcante's escape: Officials
- A sculptor and a ceramicist who grapple with race win 2023 Heinz Awards for the Arts
Recommendation
Why members of two of EPA's influential science advisory committees were let go
Asian Games offer a few sports you may not recognize. How about kabaddi, sepaktakraw, and wushu?
Biden officials no longer traveling to Detroit this week to help resolve UAW strike
Booze, brawls and broken sharks: The shocking true story behind the making of 'Jaws'
Justice Department, Louisville reach deal after probe prompted by Breonna Taylor killing
No house, spouse or baby: Should parents worry their kids are still living at home? Maybe not.
You've likely seen this ranch on-screen — burned by wildfire, it awaits its next act
Top US Air Force official in Mideast worries about possible Russia-Iran ‘cooperation and collusion’