12/17/2024
⚠️Beware of Brushing Scams!
A recent scam has been showing up in many states. We have not had any local reports, but we want to make residents aware before you are victimized.
A "brushing" scam is when someone receives an unexpected gift or item, that they did not order, in the mail from a place like Amazon or other company. The gift will have the recipient’s address but not include the sender's information. When the recipient opens the package to see what it is and possibly who sent it, there could be a QR code to scan to find out who sent the gift.
Once the code is scanned, it can redirect you to phishing website to attempt to gain your personal and financial information.
The gift can be kept or thrown away, but the QR code/links should NOT be scanned/clicked for any reason. QR code scams are nothing new.
Inform your family members about the scam and avoid scanning any unknown QR codes included in the package.
To learn more:
https://www.uspis.gov/news/scam-article/brushing-scam
https://www.security.org/digital-safety/scams/brushing/
https://www.bbb.org/article/news-releases/20509-amazon-brushing-scam-indicates-a-serious-problem-for-victims