Beware of Amazon Brushing Scam

Show Notes

Amazon delivers about 14 million packages a day through its Prime program. But some of them are going to folks who haven’t ordered anything! It’s the latest scam involving the online retail giant and it’s called “brushing.” We’ll talk about that and what you can do about it.

• Have you ever received something from Amazon or any other online retailer that you didn’t order and haven’t paid for? This is different from a mixup where you get the wrong order. We’re talking about getting an item completely unsolicited, even though it has your name and address on it. If so, you may well have been an unwitting participant in a “brushing” scam.
• Amazon allows 3rd-party merchants to sell their products on the Amazon site. When you search for items on these sites, these items turn up in the search results. The sellers know that having their products appear in the first few search results greatly increases their chances of getting an order. That search result “pecking order” is determined largely by customer reviews. The better the reviews, the higher a product is in search results. Amazon puts a higher priority on verified sale reviews, and this is where the scam comes in.
• Unscrupulous 3rd-party sellers hire people (“brushers”) to purchase their products through temporary, fake accounts. The seller then writes fake, positive reviews about their products. But to complete the process and to have those reviews get the higher “verified sale” ranking, the items have to be delivered to a real address. And here’s where you come in. Naturally, the scammers don’t want to raise suspicion by having hundreds or thousands of items delivered to their address. So, they use yours and the addresses of many other people who never ordered the product. Often, these unwilling recipients will get dozens and dozens of unsolicited products over the course of several months. Some people may not even report the deliveries to Amazon.
• So far, this almost seems like a victimless crime. But that’s not the case. The real victims are the perhaps millions of customers who buy products online based on fake reviews and then those products turn out to be shoddy.
• And there’s a downside for you if you receive one of these unsolicited packages. This means that your personal information has been compromised. A 3rd-party seller (and a shifty one at that!) now has your name, shipping address and maybe even your Amazon account information.
• So what should you do if you find an unsolicited package from Amazon on your doorstep? First, try to determine if a friend or relative might have sent you a gift. If not, call the Amazon customer service line and notify them of the unsolicited package. That number is 888- 280-4331. Amazon is well aware of this brushing scam and actively tries to stamp it out wherever it can. This scam compromises the integrity of their business model. Next, contact the Federal Trade Commission and report it. You can do that online at FTC.gov.
• Next—and this is really important—change your Amazon account password. If you use that same password anywhere else (you shouldn’t, but a lot of people do) change it there, also.
• One last thought. If you get hit with a bill for something you didn’t orderdon’t pay it. It’s just another scam.

On this program we also answer your questions:

• I need to know about long-term care insurance. Are there still good companies to get policies with them?
• How do I properly close a credit card? Is there a benefit to doing this?