I received an Amazon package at my office with Allergy Relief medicine. I initially thought that my wife had inadvertently had them shipped to my office instead of our home, but I confirmed with her, and she didn’t buy them. I reviewed our Amazon orders, and the purchase did not show up in our order history.
I did a quick chat with Amazon’s Customer Service and found that I was part of a brushing scam. A brushing scam is when someone establishes an amazon account in your name to purchase a product, so they can leave a verified review of the product. This is how some products end up with thousands of positive reviews on Amazon, so buyer beware.
The good news is Amazon instructed me to keep or dispose of the product. If wasn’t a medication, I might have kept it, but I’m definitely not ingesting a pill that mysteriously showed up at my door. But I’m glad I didn’t have to take any extra steps to return the item.
But I figured I should take extra steps to secure my information. Unfortunately, my information was most likely purchased on the dark web.
So, here’s some steps to take if you’re part of a brushing or other scam:
- Report the scam to Amazon. I just needed to put in the package tracking number to report the scam to them.
- Change your passwords
- Use multifactor authentication
- Review your financial accounts for fraud
- Lock your credit
- Review your credit report
- Subscribe to a credit monitoring service like LifeLock
None of these precautions is 100% fool-proof, so it’s comforting to know that I do have identity theft protection on my Homeowner’s Insurance. This doesn’t prevent identity theft but will help me recover my identity if stolen.
I hope you found this tip helpful. If you’d like us to help you with your Home, Auto or Business Insurance give us a call 585-663-2004.
