My story on Tuesday reminded me of this story, so of course, I decided to share it.
I have the UPS app widget on my phone and I was expecting a package, so I checked it. And I found two mystery packages from some company I'd never heard of before.
I double checked all my orders. I have a folder in my email that I keep with confirmation and shipping information until I receive the order.
Nothing from anyone that would ship from some weird company.
I searched for the company name. Found out they had a bad trust score. The suggestion was made that this could be a brushing scam. For those of you who don't know, brushing is when an order gets sent to an unsuspecting person so that good reviews for "verified" buyers can be posted online. Since this company had a bad trust score, it seemed likely this was what was going on.
This was on a Saturday. The label was printed on Friday, but I didn't see it immediately and I couldn't do anything until UPS had the actual package.
I watched my app zealously. Just a label printed. Nothing else through Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday morning.
Apparently, brushing scams can also just print a ghost label. They can provide the tracking number to the retailer where they want to write good reviews without actually sending anything. This was the outcome I was hoping for.
And then I got a shipping notification from Woot about the shoes I ordered (See Tuesday's post). It was a UPS shipping number. I went to the app. Only two packages, the ones from that strange company, and now there's a delivery date.
I close the app and click the tracking number in my email. It opens one of the two strange packages. A few minutes later, the second shipping notification email arrives. I click that tracking number, too. The other strange package opens.
That's right. Woot shipped my SHOES from a company that sells WATCHES.
I didn't realize how stressed I was about those two packages until I got the shipping notices from Woot. Instant relief. I'm so grateful that I didn't have to deal with scam artists and brushing games.
Now I can relax and look forward to the arrival of my running shoes.
