Amazon 'brushing' Scam

arsenalcrazy8

arsenalcrazy8

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Anyone have experience with this? I think this has happened to me. 

I received two packages yesterday from Amazon of things I never ordered, nor were they on my account as orders. 

It was earbuds, an LED party light, a garment steamer, and a shower mirror. The items were all Amazon Prime shipped third party.

I contacted Amazon and they said there was another account under my name and billing/shipping address (we deduced this because the phone number and credit card listed on the other account were not mine)]. They told me they would investigate and that I could just keep the packages.

I already checked my credit and theres no new credit cards / lines opened, but it is worrying that someone made a falsified account under my name and address. (and apparently has a credit card under my name and address - though not social so at least theres that)

oh and for those that dont know - I guess the idea behind brushing is people (usually overseas) want to bump up their main account's items by leaving them a ton of positive reviews. So what they do is make rogue accounts (with real names/addresses) and they then buy those items (from their main account) and ship them to you, and in exchange they can leave positive reviews for each item they 'bought'. But thats the thing since shipping is only their prime fee and the item theyre buying is from themselves, and the items I guess are really cheap to manufacture, they are essentially buying reviews for ~$1 a piece.

Anyone else have this happen to them? Any more I should / could do?

 
I remember this happened to my brother awhile back.

He got a large box, and it was full of Pops that he never ordered, and nobody else as far as he knew sent to him.

Since then, he never received anything else, and nothing negative has happened to his account, or information besides that.

It's most likely harmless to be honest, as far as, someone has your basic information, but that's hardly a difficult thing to get nowadays, so there's only so much you can do.

Just enjoy the free stuff, and unless it gets to your personal financial information, it's probably not a big deal.

 
Well I just got another package today. This time it was fake eyelashes and a photo album cube decoration.

Notified amazon again. Hope they do something about it.
 
arsenalcrazy8 said:
Well I just got another package today. This time it was fake eyelashes and a photo album cube decoration.

Notified amazon again. Hope they do something about it.
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I say just keep your mouth shut and keep getting free stuff.:D

In all seriousness... I feel like this is win-win for Amazon. They make their sales fee and the shoddy seller gets to bolster their items rating which will help drive more sales. Given how they are full of garbage products and do nothing about 99% of them, I doubt they're doing much about it.

 
As long as they don't have any actual financial information, or actual identifications such as SSN, you will probably be fine, and shouldn't be too hesitant in taking in packages, as long as they keep coming from Amazon, and not some shady merchant.

 
another package came today. this is ridiculous. called amazon (becoming my daily routine) and they said theres another package en route to me right now. oi. 

 
you forgot to mention what was in the new packages. I'm very interested in knowing. it's like surprise Christmas in September.
 
Yesterday’s packages had a galaxy note 10 leather case and an electric shaver.

Amazon said they finally locked the account while they investigate so that should be the end of that account, though they told me I have 3 more packages in route they couldn’t cancel. And of course they could always just open another account...
 
It's not a scam. you might had accidentally signed up for to be amazon's pro reviewer. In exchange for free products, you have to personally review these products.

 
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nigel200099 said:
It's not a scam. you might had accidentally signed up for to be amazon's pro reviewer. In exchange for free products, you have to personally review these products.
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Amazon may have sent you an invite via a pop up window and you may have click yes on it without reading it.

 
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as a follow up - since Amazon locked that rogue account with my name, I have not received anymore packages. Hopefully they dont just open up another account.

 
I wouldn't mind free stuff.  I figure, if the product is garbage and people order the item based on "better than garbage" reviews. 

All they have to do is return the item.  I'd probably just dump the stuff I don't want at local thrift store or something.

 
A couple of my relatives have been hit by this, and they're both elderly.

Of course, it's just random stuff, like ink cartridges, and candy.

 
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