FTC Brushing-Scam Alert: A Seller Playbook for Unordered Packages

E-Commerce

The Federal Trade Commission has renewed attention on “brushing” scams: merchandise arrives that the recipient never ordered, often followed by a request to scan a QR code or contact an unknown sender. The package itself may be cheap, but the incident can indicate that someone is misusing a consumer’s name, address, or marketplace identity.

For marketplace operators, this is more than a consumer-awareness story. Unordered deliveries can generate confused support contacts, false attribution to legitimate brands, suspicious reviews, and avoidable refund or return activity. The correct response is to treat each report as a potential account-integrity and listing-integrity event—not simply as a fulfillment mistake.

What sellers and operators should do

Give frontline support a dedicated workflow. Ask the recipient not to scan codes, call numbers, or visit links printed on the package. Collect only the minimum information needed to investigate: marketplace, visible seller name, tracking number, product identifier, and photos with personal details redacted.

Separate fulfillment errors from abuse. Check whether the shipment maps to a real order, replacement, gift, subscription, or warehouse correction. If no valid transaction exists, route it to the fraud or marketplace-abuse queue and preserve the shipment metadata.

Audit reviews and catalog activity. Look for review bursts, unfamiliar seller offers, altered listing content, or orders tied to accounts that do not match normal purchasing patterns. Brand owners should use the marketplace’s reporting channel when their name or listing is being used without authorization.

Protect customers without overpromising. Direct recipients to the marketplace’s official support channel and advise them to review account security. The FTC says consumers should not scan an unexpected package’s QR code and should report suspicious activity; the U.S. Postal Inspection Service also recommends notifying the retailer and monitoring accounts.

Track the signal. Tag cases consistently by carrier, fulfillment channel, SKU, marketplace, and region. A single report may be noise, but repeated reports around one listing or seller account can reveal coordinated abuse quickly.

The practical takeaway is simple: an unordered package belongs in the same risk system as suspicious reviews, account takeover, and listing abuse. A documented response protects customers while giving operators better evidence to escalate to marketplaces and carriers.

Sources

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