This is probably a scam:
this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2025
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Throw it away
If you opened it, and do not wish to keep it, you may simply dispose of it in the garbage, as long as it is safe to do so.
Keep it
If you opened it and you like it, you may keep it. By law, you may keep unsolicited merchandise and are under no obligation to pay for it.
Note that this may be correct only in Usa. Different in other countries.
Do you know of any countries that have different laws? I'm curious as to how it would work?
Here you do not own it. The owner can request it back. But you can't be bothered to walk to the post office and pay for shipping it back. So you have to keep it available for him to (come or send someone and) pick it up. At least 3 weeks iirc, unless it is perishable goods. Then you can throw it away. If he does not request it back, then you own it after some time (I forgot how long, half a year maybe).
If I am understanding right, when you say "can't be bothered", you mean "can't be compelled/forced"?
Seems pretty reasonable, albeit slightly reliant on honesty. At least for scammers, they aren't likely to want it back, as that would deanonymise them, so if its definitely a scam, your pretty safe to keep it.
Thanks for the info :)
I didn't think of that. The name is pretty generic.
That makes even more sense, they probably dont stand out in the crowded market place, but for a few dollars in shipping and lost product, they can get a glowing review to push them up.
Its important to realise that while the item might list for $$$$$, it probably only costs $ to manufacture.
I thought those usually involved cheaper items. No point in spending hundreds of dollars to lend credence to a fake review
OP may see it listed for $150-700, but who's not to say it's a $2 knock-off?
It may be a fake item, but also remember that the cost to make jewelry is usually far less than what they are sold for, so it probably wasn't hundreds of dollars.
I'll update when I find the video, but there was a woman who gave a ~~blackhat~~ defcon talk about it, and she got a coffee machine, so its not without precedence to spend hundreds.
Edit: link https://youtu.be/2IT2oAzTcvU
Well, theoretically they're just paying Amazon's cut and taxes... Which isn't nothing, but if their markup is high enough it could still math out
Well that's interesting.
I've heard of this scam, but I also don't know how fast change of address works. I sometimes get the occasional package post marked over a year prior and often coming from a foreign country arriving at my doorstep with the address of my apartment, but for a previous tenant.
I read through this a few times, and I'm still not sure how exactly this is supposed to work. The QR phishing part makes sense, but is the gist that they just sent out random crap to random people, in hopes that a few of them will leave a positive review somewhere?
I think the seller themselves write the review. They basically create a fake account with someone’s details in order to generate a legitimate sale so they can leave a review. They sacrifice some of their products to get the reviews up.
The items could also have been purchased with a stolen credit cards.
I had a variation of on of these scams happen to me.
I purchased a pair of headphones on eBay - $50 The box that arrived, was shipped directly from Officeworks, with an invoice for $70, and a business account setup in my name, and a strange credit card. Reported it to officeworks, got to keep the headphones, but likely someone got a $70 charge on their card, and the eBay seller probably got my $50 for free.
Ooohh, okay that makes more sense! So by the time you've already received the product, the scam has already been finished and you're just left throwing away somebody else's garbage. How wasteful.
Call the sender and ask what to do.
I'll call when they reopen. Don't ask me why I didn't think of that.
Don't beat yourself up. Its easy to overlook.
was it shipped by USPS? Then mark it "wrong address" and let them pick it up. if you want to go the extra mile, bring it to a post office.
If it was shipped by someone else, call them, they'll probably come out. alternatively, they're probably in your neighborhood. check for a shipping label with an address or something and walk it over.
if they confirm it was sent to your address. congratulations. free shit.
If the address is incorrect, you could try finding the correct address and deliver it yourself, or maybe contact the post office local to that area to arrange a delivery of sorts?
I once got an Amazon package addressed to the previous resident of my apartment, and I was expecting packages of my own at the time so I opened it without reading the name of the intended recipient. Realizing it wasn’t mine, I was able to locate the intended recipient on LinkedIn and found her workplace, which happened to be nearby. I asked for her at the workplace’s front desk (without realizing that I was talking to her) and she said to deliver any other packages meant for her to that workplace. With mail (in the US, at least), you can write “Not at this address” on the envelope and mail it and it should find its way to the intended recipient.