The Latest Scam To Hit Mainers, Brushing

According to News Center Maine, there's a new scam designed to falsely improve the ratings of certain Amazon products, and Mainers are getting loads of packages dumped on them that they never ordered.

You might be a victim of the "Brushing" scam if you start getting packages from Amazon that you never ordered. Cardboard boxes of random stuff are sent so that a company can register the product as a "verified purchase" and write a false review for it. Not only are you getting boxes of stuff that you probably won't want to keep, but false reviews mean you don't know if you're buying a good product. But hey, if a company has to generate positive reviews to get rid of stock, it's safe to say the product is junk.

Amazon is aware of the problem but hasn't been able to fix it yet. If you get packages that you didn't order, you aren't responsible to purchase them and you can keep the merchandise.

I you get packages from Amazon containing useless stuff that you didn't order:

• Notify Amazon.
• Change your Amazon security information and passwords.
• Consider closing your Amazon account and opening a new one. The scammers obviously have some of your account information.