Beware of This New Scam Where You Recieve a Gift in The Mail in Arkansas & Texas

📦New Scam Brushing

🎁How it works

📦 What you should do to protect yourself

Oh great, there is a new scam to watch out for and you need to be aware of it especially this time of year, because a gift you receive in the mail might not be a gift at all. Someone could be trying to scam you.

New Scam Called Brushing

The new scam has been spotted in Arkansas and Texas and now moving all across the country. The scam is called 'Brushing'. According to reports from the US Postal Service, Brushing is when you receive a gift in the mail that you did not order. The package will have your address on it but no return address or the address might be from a "retailer".

How it Works

The box might have a bracelet or something small that doesn't cost much to ship. What they are trying to do is give the impression that you the recipient is a verified buyer who has written positive online reviews of the merchandise. But the fact is someone wrote the review in your name. These positive fake reviews will help the scammers to boost their product ratings and therefore boost their sales.

How to Protect Yourself From 'Brushing'

The United States Postal Service says there are a few things you can do:

-Do not pay for it

-You can return to sender unopened at no cost to you

-If you have opened it and like it, keep it. You are allowed to keep unsolicited merchandise. If you don't like it... just throw it away.

- If there are seeds, plants, food inside or an unknown liquid or substance you will need to call the authorities.

- Realize that your personal information might be compromised, so expect to change passwords.

-Watch your credit card bills, banking and credit reports to make sure there isn't a problem.

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There is More Danger With The Brushing Scam

According to the Federal Trade Commission's website,

This scam can go further and with the unsolicited gift, there is a QR code that they ask you to scan.

A scammer’s QR code could take you to a spoofed site that looks real but isn’t. And if you log in to the spoofed site, the scammers could steal any information you enter. Or the QR code could install malware that steals your information before you realize it.

So be cautious when you scan a QR code!