Couple receive 100+ packages they didn’t order— how to protect yourself from a “brushing scam”

SINGAPORE: A Nov 29 (Friday) report in CNA said that over a period of two and a half months, a couple had received more than 100 parcels from various online platforms including Shopee and Lazada.

The problem is that the couple had never ordered them.

On most days, as many as seven or eight small and incorrectly labelled packages arrived at their doorstep. Earlier this month, after Shopee stepped in and banned the accounts of sellers and buyers who had sent the parcels to the address, the deliveries ceased.

What the couple experienced is not a new phenomenon, as “brushing scams” have been around for the past few years. It has not only affected individuals in Singapore but all across the globe.

In 2020, thousands of Americans received unsolicited packages containing seeds, most of which were sent from China.

This prompted the online retail giant Amazon to ban the sale of foreign seeds within the United States. Officials in the US also warned against planting seeds of unknown origin, as they could carry pests and diseases.

“Brushing” was mainly used at the beginning to increase the positive reviews of products sold online, with scammers opening accounts using the names and addresses they obtained from data breaches and posting reviews from these accounts.

The more good reviews a product has, the chances of it being purchased grow.

If an individual finds that their name has been used to review a product they never bought or used, they should report this to the e-commerce platform right away.

They should also change their passwords and set up a two-factor authentication for them.

Brushing scams and QR codes

More recently, however, “brushing scam” perpetrators appeared to have upped their game, posing a bigger threat to would-be victims.

Recipients of unsolicited packages need to be wary when trying to determine who sent them, as they usually have no information concerning the sender.

The parcels will, at times, have a QR code that the recipient is asked to scan in order to determine the identity of the sender.

But once they scan the code, information from their phones can be sent to scammers, who may be then given access to the phone owner’s personal or even financial information.

One police department in the US warned that recipients of unsolicited parcels should never scan these codes.

In Singapore, people have been victimized by QR code scams, and the police issued a warning in May 2023 regarding the common types of attacks scammers employ involving QR codes and related apps, and urged the public to be vigilant. 

The featured photo above is from Freepik/jcomp (for illustration purposes only). /TISG

Read also: US homes receive mystery seed packages as part of “brushing” scam