Unexpected earrings – harmless or scam?

Yesterday a pair of cheap tacky looking earrings arrived in a parcel addressed to me.   Looks like it came from China.  But whilst the style of packaging looks a bit like Amazon, there is no delivery note or anything else to say it is Amazon or who ordered them.  They are not on my Amazon order list so it wasn’t me or Mrs R.

I am guessing it is some sort of scam, maybe for them to post a fake review somewhere, but is so I am a bit disappointed that the scammer has got my name and address.  Anyone got any theories?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=G33XVXQPUV79Z2ZC

it’s a scam but a fairly benign one (I think!) in that it’s not designed to relieve you of any cash, just something they do to generate fake reviews!

do yuo have any way of producing a review for them – source & product ID – or just totally anonymous items in a bag ? (if the latter, it seems a pretty shit scam)

This is the modern day equivalent of finding a horses head in your bed.

They are on to you

Have you tried them on yet?

Well they could be harmful if you try them on and you don’t have your ears pierced.

Ah!  Thanks OP for this post.  Had wondered why some nasty, fake sunglasses turned up in the post addressed to our place.  Wasn’t really bothered/interested, but now we know why – brushing, apparently

just totally anonymous items in a bag

This. Although from what the @kcr ‘s Amazon link says they are logging on to generate the review, not me.

the modern day equivalent of finding a horses head in your bed.

A horse’s head I can cope with, it’s when they leave the rest of the horse in my bed that I get worried.

Have you tried them on yet?

No, because:

they could be harmful if you try them on and you don’t have your ears pierced

But you are welcome to have them@MrSparkle

Having initially read that as Unexpected earnings I then thought you’d put your hand up to your ear and discovered you were wearing earrings you couldn’t remember putting on.

It’s definitely aliens.

But you are welcome to have them@MrSparkle

Need pics first to see if they match any of my outfits.

I rarely bother writing reviews for Amazon stuff, particularly something like the 2kg bags of calciworms I repeat buy every couple of weeks. Although people might be interested in the fact my hedgehogs absolutely love them…

Well, I’ve learned something today, i had no idea what ‘brushing’ was.

So that’s why your hair looks like that!

Probably better than unexpected pearl necklace…

do yuo have any way of producing a review for them – source & product ID – or just totally anonymous items in a bag ? (if the latter, it seems a pretty shit scam)

that’s not how the scams work.  They don’t ship YOU a free gift and ask YOU to review it.  The ship something cheap to you, using an account they control, and then they use that account to write “Great product, brilliant service, amazing price” or whatever and give 5 stars.  The platforms/marketplaces have learned to spot if you are sending 100 items to the same address and leaving amazing feedback on them all so this overcomes that.  The scam may well go further – because I don’t think £1 earrings are the tipping point of the feedback.  But if you sell items costing £100s feedback matters.  As there isn’t someone to complain that they ordered a £500 hard disk and received £1 earrings they can potentially manipulate the system!  There may also be things you unlock by having x successful transaction, or fewer than y% complaints etc.

They don’t ship YOU a free gift and ask YOU to review it. The ship something cheap to you, using an account they control, and then they use that account to write “Great product, brilliant service, amazing price” or whatever and give 5 stars

Bizarre scam… why do they bother shipping anything at all?

So there is a tracking audit trail

if you sell items costing £100s feedback matters. As there isn’t someone to complain that they ordered a £500 hard disk and received £1 earrings they can potentially manipulate the system! There may also be things you unlock by having x successful transaction, or fewer than y% complaints etc

Aah. 💡

(In other news, Unexpected Earrings have a 1 week residency at 6 Music coming up in May)

Okay, I didn’t know I needed a motion sensor light for my toilet bowls but thanks to that brushing article I’m off to find one….