BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — You may not realize just how much you bought while online shopping until those boxes are delivered to your door. But the Amazon packages sent to Jillian Cannan and her family weren’t ordered by anyone in her household.
At first, Cannan thought her business partner ordered supplies for their studio. Once she looked closer, she realized that while it was her home address on the boxes, it wasn’t her name.
As the boxes came in droves, Cannan contacted Amazon to find the rightful owner. The representative told her the individual listed on the address didn’t have an Amazon account. Tracking information also led them nowhere.
Inside the boxes were thousands of silicone brackets for facemasks. Cannan estimates she’s received about 100 deliveries so far, and each box holds more than 1,000 mask inserts.
Cannan fears this is not a mistake, but a scam.
“If it’s a scam — a lot of people have mentioned possibly that could be it, somebody trying to boost their Amazon ratings and sending packages to different addresses,” she said. “People have a lot of different theories.”
According to Amazon, a customer receiving a package they didn’t order could be the victim of a scam sometimes called “brushing.”
“Brushing scams occur when bad actors send packages to publically available names and addresses,” Amazon said.
According to the Better Business Bureau, the intention behind the scam is to make it appear as though the recipient is a verified buyer who wrote a glowing online review of the sender’s products.
“They then post a fake, positive review to improve their products’ ratings, which means more sales for them,” the BBB said. “The payoff is highly profitable from their perspective.”
However, Cannan said, if someone has actually sent their deliveries to the wrong house, she wants to know.
“We would love to give them to you. I would love to connect with the rightful owner and give all of these back,” she said, “especially if it’s somebody who ordered them that needs them.”
Cannan and her family also say they are open to donating the mask brackets if they are not claimed.
