SOT: possible Amazon scam

Scott · 2026-08-23T09:02:13+00:00

Yesterday I received an unsolicited package from Amazon, addressed tothe previous occupier, who moved out more than two years ago. It wasof low value (dishwasher tablets) with no packing note or anydocumentation. A Google search suggests this could be a 'brushingscam' (whatever that means) to create a false review or a false sale.I have reported this (online) to Amazon. Has anyone encountered this?Is there anything I should be worried about? Obviously I will look outfor bank payments, emails and phone calls. I appreciate there is apossibility that the tablets could be counterfeit or hazardous.

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Theo 4 weeks ago

At £15 per hour minimum wage, once employers' NI, pension, HR etc etc are taken into account, works out at 25p per minute. It doesn't take very long for the costs of an 'exceptional' process to mount up quickly. It's much cheaper for them to just push a button and semi-robotically send another one. Or equally refund you, rather than organising a repair.

It's why I end up doing a lot of DIY too... any time you want something done out of the ordinary, the time to even price up the job is going to add up. If you want the brake pads done on your Ford Focus, they've done it a hundred times before and the computer will give them a price including parts, labour and margin. But for a repair which is 'not on the system' they don't have a clue how much to price it, and by the time they have you don't want to pay it anyway.

Theo

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Tricky Dicky 4 weeks ago

Back in the late eighties I knew a girl who worked in the repairs department at Comet (remember them?) even back then anything in value less than £35 that being their standard starting fee was mended with a new one.

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Davey 4 weeks ago

When I was going through my Eaton UPS saga, they kept on sending me defective ones, so each time they sent another, they just said for me to recycle the bad one. Then Amazon delivered one to the wrong place, I did all the donkey work and told Amazon and Eaton where it was. Amazon didn't care and declared it Lost, Eaton just sent out another replacement. They didn't even claim from Amazon, again probably too expensive.

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billy bookcase 3 weeks ago

Stop me if you've already heard it.

Was it actually delivered by Amazon ?

Or just in an "Amazon" box ?

If somebody calls to collect it claiming to be collecting it on behalf of the previous owner, then yes.

This is just a test to make sure you'll hand stuff over; and establish a routine

Because the next "Amazon" item to be wrongly delivered to your house possibly with foreign postage, again addressed to the former owner could possibly be drugs or other illicit items posted from abroad, Getting them through customs is possibly the biggest hurdle; and then if they're traced then its going to be to your front door.

Which will again be picked up by someone collecting it on behalf of previous owner But only after a week or two to make sure the coast is clear.

But about which the previous owner of your house will know absolutely nothing.

Such information is probably relatively easy to obtain

But this would only apply if it's picked up.

Otherwise it was possibly just something dreamt up by someone with an over-vivid imagination and posted on another forum

bb

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Joe 3 weeks ago

Not the same, but related, there are UK companies which, unbelievably, open *credit* accounts just on the basis of an online form, no ID or proof of address required.

I received around £600 of perfume from a well-known catalogue company out of the blue. I've never had an account with them, or even bought anything from them. I notified the company immediately and requested collection, which had to be authorised by their fraud department. I found I did have an account with them, with the correct name and address.

An hour or so later, a man turned up on the doorstep, showed me an image on his phone of a driving licence with my name on it and an address in the next street, one postcode letter away, swore it was his name also and there must have been a typo in the address. Of course we refused to hand it over and told him collection had already been arranged, and they would re-deliver it to him.

It took me about two weeks to finally talk to someone in the company's fraud department, who agreed with me that handing out credit accounts was a bad idea, but it was a management decision. In the end, I chose to take the parcel to a local collection point, rather than risking someone in their accounts department being in on it and arranging a false courier, most couriers are just men and women in cars nowadays.

What is really scary is that my wife meets with four or five other women of similar age every week or so, and they all said they would have given it to the man at the door...

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