
Ask HN: Received a bolt in the mail – what kind of scam could this be? - boltfromblue
Yesterday my wife received in the mail (USPS, not FedEx or UPS) a bolt that had been mailed to her from a PO Box in Fiji.  The bolt was a tiny thing (bolt as in screw, not a deadbolt) probably costs a few cents at most wholesale.  Needless to say, we had not ordered anything of this kind, certainly not from Fiji.  The sender was a PO Box from Fiji and there was no other tracking information.  The doorman received the package and may have signed for it (unclear - the one is duty is not back yet).<p>My wife shops online a fair bit and has had an incident in the past where her information was stolen – and since then we have been extra careful with respect to alerts etc.  We have reset our alerts after receiving this bolt from the blue.  In this case, we are extra perplexed as to what sort of scam this could be.  What would someone achieve by sending us a “test” package in the mail?  This was clearly not a fake amazon order sent to us in a review scam (happened to another friend) – clearly seems like a set up for something more insidious.  What would someone send next and why?  Any ideas as to what could be happening?  Thanks!
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mchannon
The term for this is "brushing".

An actual seller made an actual sale and sent it to your address. The actual
buyer was obviously not you. The actual buyer was either in cahoots with, or
simply is, the seller.

Whatever platform they placed the order with (Aliexpress perhaps) will now
give them (1) next to their name instead of (0), or more likely, (10001)
instead of (10000).

Whether illegal in fact or not, I don't think it goes against the spirit of
the law: Aliexpress and other platforms (even Amazon) incentivize this sort of
behavior. In sending you that throwaway screw, they now are closer to
qualifying for (or keeping) preferential seller status which is essential to
survival on those platforms (better rates, etc.).

Throw the screw away, or keep it as a reminder that the 21st century's weird
little perverse incentives drive people to do very illogical things.

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4ensic
I've seen shipping fraud where a third party in the same ZIP code is sent a
package weighing about the same as the fraudulent (and nonexistent parcel)
would weigh.

A bad guy in Fiji was the seller of something that weighs about the same as a
bolt. The victim is in your ZIP.

Actual street addresses are not stored by the USPS for Delivery Confirmation
(only tracking # and ZIP of delivering Post Office), bad guy is able to
provide a tracking number to the victim and "prove" his package of diamonds, a
Rolex, or drugs was delivered to his victim. I'll bet nobody signed, as
Certified and Registered mail include an address as well as a signature.

A call to the Postal Inspection Service at 877-876-2455 and a request to speak
with a Mail Fraud Inspector may help clear up some crimes.

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tarr11
It could be related to this: [https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-
all/brhow4/124-the-magic...](https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-
all/brhow4/124-the-magic-store)

Basically, amazon sellers will send actual items to legitimate addresses to
mask fake amazon reviews.

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mtmail
Can the sender see proof of delivery online, e.g. scan of the signature?

