Honey, I didn’t order this, did you??? … Brushing Scams
Tune in to the latest Golden Nuggets where Earl Duby discusses the deceptive world of brushing scams, especially prevalent during the holiday season. Learn how these scams hijack your identity to boost e-commerce product ratings and how to protect yourself when unexpected packages show up at your door.
Stay vigilant and stay informed!
Transcript:
(0:02) All right, welcome back for another Golden Nuggets. You know today I want to (0:14) talk about something given the holiday season that we’re entering and you know (0:20) we always have these package scams that come up around Christmas time and so (0:25) today I was scrolling through my social media posts and looking at some (0:30) of my RSS feeds on different security things and I noticed something coming up (0:35) that it happened last year, seemed to be kind of new last year. This year it’s (0:40) popping up again so I just want to bring this to your attention.
It’s something (0:43) called brushing scams and the reason it’s called a brushing scam is basically (0:50) because somebody is trying to make a product page on an e-commerce site look (0:56) better than it really is and the way that they do that is by taking stolen (1:03) identities so they basically set up all these fake accounts on an e-commerce (1:10) site and they start shipping product to those accounts and then they log in (1:17) fraudulently as these people and say how great these products are. So what that (1:23) feels like to the victim is you get this unsolicited package in the mail, you open (1:29) it up and you know there’s like a diamond ring in there that you didn’t (1:33) order or there’s you know some cheap trinket that you didn’t order and it’s (1:39) in this box and you have no idea why you got it, there’s no return address. So just(1:45) understand that you have been pulled into a scam that isn’t really about you (1:52) it’s more about making a an inferior product look better than it really is (2:01) and a lot of this happens on Amazon or eBay or whatever and so what you can (2:07) realize though is when you get that package you probably need to take a few (2:13) precautions because chances are you got that package because your credentials or (2:17) your personal information has been purchased on the black dark web and these (2:25) accounts were set up in your name.
So what you can do and there’s a there’s a nice (2:29) story and here there’ll be a link to it here from the US Postal Service and they (2:36) they have a couple recommendations at the end that are pretty good. So first of (2:41) all just realize that if you get a package in the mail that you didn’t ask (2:44) for you’re not obligated to pay for it. So if there’s any note or anything in (2:50) that in that package that says you need to pay for this you don’t have to and (2:55) chances are that’s the scam is they’re trying to get you to log into some fake (2:59) website to upload your credentials but just realize if you get the package you (3:05) didn’t order it you don’t have to pay for it.
The other thing is depending on (3:10) what’s in that package first of all if you don’t open the package you can just (3:14) put return to sender take it to the US Post Office and they will ship it back (3:20) for free. If you do open it and there are organic materials in there plants things (3:28) like that you need to report that and there’s a there’s a good way to report (3:33) that here in this this website that is going to get posted here. The other thing (3:39) is you need to go check all of your accounts because chances are one of (3:45) those accounts got compromised so change passwords.
So if you get a package in (3:49) the mail that’s a good cue for you to go change all of your passwords for you (3:55) know your banking sites or different sites because you don’t know which (3:59) account got compromised and if you’re sharing passwords across multiple (4:03) accounts you need to change all those passwords because you don’t know which (4:07) password got compromised. So just keep that in mind and then you know just do (4:14) the normal things of checking your credit do your credit monitoring you (4:19) know I always advocate that you get a credit monitoring service so don’t wait (4:22) until your accounts been breached and someone gives you the one year of free (4:27) credit monitoring just go out buy your own family plan put all your kids on it (4:33) and just monitor all of your credit all the time because the world we’re living (4:39) in today you know it’s just a matter of time before your personal information (4:43) gets compromised. So those are just a few quick things definitely follow this link (4:48) go look at the US Postal Service announcement on this type of a scam and(4:53) just be prepared for it because in this holiday season you’re going to be (4:57) getting lots of packages so just be careful when you do open a package you (5:00) may not have actually ordered it.
So be vigilant out there and be safe. Thanks.
