A Virginia woman named Cindy Smith recently found herself in a peculiar situation when she started receiving over 100 Amazon packages that she didn’t order. The packages contained a variety of items, including 1,000 headlamps, 800 glue guns, and numerous kids’ binoculars. Smith, who resides in Prince William County, became confused as the boxes continued to pile up outside her home.
“It’s a lot of packages,” Smith told CBS affiliate station WUSA. “I didn’t order them.”
Upon further inspection, Smith discovered that the packages were addressed to a name she didn’t recognize, Lixiao Zhang. This led her to suspect that she may have fallen victim to a fraudulent scheme known as a “brushing” scam. In this type of scam, e-commerce sellers send unsolicited packages to individuals and then post fake positive reviews on their behalf to boost their ratings on online marketplaces like Amazon or eBay.
However, WUSA reported that Smith’s situation is more likely linked to a different type of vendor scheme. It appears that sellers in China are attempting to remove unsold merchandise from Amazon fulfillment centers by sending them to random addresses. CJ Rosenbaum, a founding partner at the New York law firm Rosenbaum Famularo, explained that it is cheaper for these sellers to send their unwanted products to random addresses rather than paying for their return or disposal.
WUSA traced the return packaging labels on Smith’s packages to 15 different fulfillment centers in nine states. Amazon confirmed that the seller account responsible for these packages had violated their policies and has since been closed.
“There is no place for fraud at Amazon, and we will continue to pursue all measures to protect our store and hold bad actors accountable,” an Amazon spokesperson stated.
Smith, who works as an environmental science professor, didn’t want the items to go to waste, so she took it upon herself to distribute them around town. She gave the glue guns and headlamps to her neighbors, dog shelters, veterinary clinics, and even surprised the staff at a local Burger King with a gift.
Despite the confusion and inconvenience, Smith managed to turn the situation into a positive one by sharing the unexpected gifts with others in her community.