A Virginia woman named Cindy Smith recently found herself in a peculiar situation when she started receiving over 100 Amazon packages that she never ordered. According to CBS affiliate station WUSA, the packages contained about 1,000 headlamps, 800 glue guns, and numerous kids’ binoculars.
Smith expressed her confusion and surprise as the boxes continued to pile up outside her home in Prince William County. “It’s a lot of packages,” she told WUSA. “I didn’t order them.”
Upon further investigation, Smith discovered that the packages were addressed to a person she didn’t recognize named Lixiao Zhang. This led her to suspect that she might be a victim of a fraudulent scheme known as a “brushing” scam. In this 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 revealed that Smith’s situation was more likely linked to a different type of vendor scheme. It appears that sellers in China were attempting to remove unsold merchandise from Amazon fulfillment centers. They would randomly select addresses and send their unwanted products there, as it was a cheaper alternative for them.
WUSA traced the return packaging labels to 15 fulfillment centers across nine different states. CJ Rosenbaum, a founding partner at the New York law firm Rosenbaum Famularo, explained that it all comes down to money. The sellers in China needed to clear their products from Amazon warehouses, and sending them to random addresses was a cost-effective solution.
Amazon confirmed that the seller account involved in this scheme violated their policies and has since been closed. An Amazon spokesperson stated, “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.”
Smith, who is an environmental science professor, decided not to let the items go to waste. Instead, she drove around town and distributed the glue guns, headlamps, and other items to her neighbors, dog shelters, veterinary clinics, and even Burger King. “All my neighbors got glue guns or headlamps,” she shared with WUSA. “I gave them to dog shelters, to veterinary clinics. I went to Burger King one day, and I was like, ‘I have a gift for you.'”
Despite the unusual circumstances, Smith’s generosity ensured that the unexpected packages found new homes and avoided ending up in a landfill.