New brushing scam sends out face masks

New brushing scam sends out face masks

It was only a couple of weeks ago when we talked about the last brushing scam. That scam had people receiving a bluish-white powder in the mail.

For those of you who may not know, a brushing scam is when you get sent packages to your home of things you didn’t order. Usually, these packages come from Amazon and contain low-cost items. This is done so third-party vendors that sell through Amazon can give themselves good online reviews in your name, and the review shows up on Amazon as a verified purchase giving the phony review more legitimacy. In turn, this leads to these products being more recommended by Amazon.

The most recent brushing scam has consumers receiving a delivery of face masks. They’re said to be arriving in Amazon packages but being shipped from China. If you receive one of these packages, it’s recommended that you throw the masks out. You may also want to check your Amazon account to make sure your account has not been compromised. Even if it hasn’t been compromised, it is highly recommended that you change your Amazon password. If you were to leave your password unchanged, it could lead to items being purchased with your payment information. It could also lead to potential identity theft.

If you shop at different online retailers, you should have a different password for each retailer. A password manager is recommended to assist you with that. Also, you should keep an eye on your credit as brushing scammers could potentially have your financial information.

If any of your debit or credit cards have been used in this scam you’ll want to cancel them and have new ones issued. The only consolation to the victims of this scam is that they can legally keep the items sent to them, however, they’re usually not the type of items you’d normally want to keep.