A woman who received a ring in a red velvet bag bearing the name of a luxury brand was confused. She hadn’t ordered it, she didn’t like it and it was clearly a fake.
The ‘gift’ was an instance of brushing. That’s when online retailers send unsolicited items to real people in a bid to generate reviews and boost their online presence. Reviews from real people help these retailers go to the top of searches and make the sellers seem trustworthy, the ABC explains.
“It’s not so much a scam, but more fraud,” said cybercrime expert Simon Smith.
“In the sense that they’re using your real details to send you something completely useless and small that doesn’t cost them anything, really.
“But it’s almost like buying a testimonial, buying a review.”
He said if people received an item as part of an apparent brushing scam, there was no need to panic. But, he said, it could be a warning sign.
“Because one thing that we can ascertain from this is the fact these criminals, or these people, have actually got your name and address,” he said.
“And if that’s what they’ve got, they can do quite a lot of damage with that information.”
So what to do?
Mr Smith recommends that brushing package recipients report the item to the retailer or the host website.
More information and help can be found through iDCare and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission says people should “search for independent reviews on a seller rather than relying on the reviews on their own website”.
And use secure payment methods such as PayPal or Apple Pay rather than providing your credit card details direct to the seller.
Have you experienced ‘brushing’? How heavily do you rely on reviews before making online purchases?
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