New twist on brushing scam prompts warning from local police departments

ST. LOUIS - Brushing scams have been on Contact 2’s radar since 2018. That’s when we met a Chesterfield man who said he’d received more than two dozen items randomly shipped to his family’s home. We found it was happening to folks across the country.

In a brushing scam, online sellers create fake buyer accounts and ship products to a real address. The seller then writes a positive review of its products from the fake buyer account because positive product reviews help drive online sales. 

But the “brushing scam warning” the Bridgeton and Kirkwood Police Departments posted to their Facebook pages has a different twist. It urges residents to avoid scanning QR codes that may be included in unexpected packages delivered to their homes.

The fear is that scanning these codes gives information on your phone to scammers, which could provide access to your bank accounts. The departments say if you encounter this, do not scan the QR code. Commentors noted the warning isn’t totally accurate.

Simply scanning a QR code won’t grant a scammer access to your device and personal information. Nonetheless, you should proceed with caution.

“You have no idea where that’s going to lead you,” Sarah Wetzel with Better Business Bureau St. Louis said. “Anything you receive unsolicited and they’re asking you to go to a website or scan a QR code, consumers need to use caution."

Clicking a link tied to a QR code might direct you to a website where inputting your information could prove costly. Wetzel says receiving an unsolicited package from an unknown source in the first place is a sign of potential trouble.

“Somebody out there has your information. So this is really a good time to just use caution. Check your credit annually. Because if that information is out, you have no idea what other things are out there that scammers could have,” she said.

To learn more about the scam and how to prevent falling victim to it, click here.