Did You Receive a Strange Package in the Mail?
About a year ago, everyone was receiving packets of seeds in the mail from China. I never received one and felt left out.
Yesterday, in my mailbox, there was a small white envelope that arrived. A very strange piece of mail.
I didn't remember ordering anything recently. When I looked closely at the label, I noticed the return address was Kyrgyzstan, a country in Central Asia just west of China. I know I never ordered anything from there!
The address label had my complete mailing address. It also included my cell phone number. That was a little creepy as well. Not only did someone that I didn't know have my address -- but they also my phone number.
I continued to read over the label... The contents were described as having a U.S. dollar value of $5.00. It was marked that it was a "gift" and even weirder...for a description it said it was a "Dishcloth". I know I never ordered a dishcloth from some country in Asia. I think if I need a dishcloth, I can find one to buy much closer to home.
Cautiously I decided to open the package to see just exactly was inside. This is where it gets really bizarre...
Enclosed in the envelope were two face masks. These were the kind we are all familiar with wearing due to COVID-19. The cloth material was bluish in color on one side and white on the other. A very typical face mask. What really creeped me out was that these things felt wet. Were they soaked with something? I immediately washed my hands and then picked up the packet with a paper towel and took it out to the garage for later examination. I then washed my hands again. I'm hoping it was just water on those masks.
Who would wear a mask that was sent randomly to them from foreign land? And even bigger question...who would wear a wet mask?!
Upon doing some research online, I found that several people have received similar packages recently. Apparently it is all part of a scam they refer to as “Brushing”. Companies send you products for free that you didn’t order, so they can verify a delivery, and then write their own reviews for a product. We've all seen reviews on products and knew they were fake. This is one of the ways they do it.
The stories I saw said that these “brushing” scams don’t usually involve serious forms of identity theft, but it is a good idea to change your passwords and keep an eye on your bank and credit card statements (which is a good thing to do anyway).
It looks like people first started receiving the unordered masks last summer. Mine just took a year to arrive apparently.
Anyone want a couple of unused -- but soggy -- face masks?