Brushing return scam?

RFW

I've so far had three items sent to me, my company name and address that are returns from Ebay (Royal Mail Ebay tracked return). They aren't items we sell and when I've been able to find the buyer they haven't purchased anything from me, so not a mistake.

I've had a search and it appears to be related to a brushing scam but can't quite figure out what's going on. It has happened to others but haven't found anyone who stopped it. For the first two I sent them back to the address they came from on the Ebay label.

There's not much of value, sale price averages about £10. The sellers of the items all appear to be Far East sellers.

I'm a (very) old hand at selling online but this isn't something I've seen before. I've messaged Ebay but am not particularly hopeful they'll even know what I'm talking about let alone help. I'll wait for their reply and then try Trading Standards as it may e buyers being scammed and I have some information they can possibly access.

My company name and address are available for anyone to find so I'm not worried about any kind of hack. I have checked my Ebay and Royal Mail accounts to make sure there's been no charges there or anything that shouldn't be and there's no trace of anything.

Woodstok2000

Here's one example of how this scam can work:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ebayuk/comments/1xa3tpz/scammer_altered_ebays_return_label_on_an_810/

RFW

Thanks. I don't think that's the same thing. These have my address as the return address, it hasn't been altered, I can check the details on RM's tracking. This appears to be something perpetrated by the seller. My best guess is that they're a Chinese seller trying to sell as though they have a UK address.

soolin

I don't know the answer but I've seen this mentioned before over the years. The husband of a work colleague got dozens of packages during Covid, all smallish things at first like a milk frother, makeup brushes and stationery sets but got worried when a slightly more expensive item arrived (from memory it was a bed linen set) and at that point reported it to the Police using the 101 system on the basis it would cover him if anyone tried to claim anything back . After that a couple more smaller packages arrived and then it stopped.

I recall it because just before Christmas 2024 having heard nothing about anything he donated the lot to his local church fete as tombola prizes.

Woodstok2000

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82198873#Comment_82198873

It could be that too, although my parents have had a couple of packages like this and the labels appear absolutely genuine, they're just being reprinted by the scammers with the correct barcode and a new address.

RFW

The first two I returned to the return address on them. That would seem to be whoever had the return label so I'm seeing if it comes back this way.

I was right about Ebay help, I received a cut and paste reply about account security.

It is low level tat. The first ones were vitamins, the second a cheap toy. The wholesale value of all of it so far is probably under a fiver. At some level it's possibly an error but that seems unlikely at this point.

When I searched the items they were flooded by Far East sellers and the first originated from an account that no longer exists. If I get a few more they may start getting returned to Ebay's UK office.