Following the herd is pretty typical for human nature. When you apply this to e-commerce, consumers tend to select (or at least heavily consider) products with high ratings and a relatively large number of them.
Ratings affect searches, placement, traffic flows, bundling (“buy these together!”), and more. No wonder individuals and companies attempt to create this leverage with considerable resource allocation. Good faith examples include soliciting a review after product receipt. Or, those who send out promotional items understanding that honest feedback is expected and the reviewer will acknowledge they received the product for free. Then, some will craft a method based on dishonesty.
This is where “Brushing” comes in. Brushing is a strategy used to increase a seller's ratings by creating fake orders. However, it is a little more complicated than hiring mercenary server farms to write positive reviews. The orders require legitimate package tracking data for it to be considered valid by most e-commerce platforms. Here is the flow on a fundamental level utilized by bad actors:
Pay Someone to Place Small Order
Small Order Received
Small, lightweight items are sent to a random address to create a tracking number.
Once the tracking status is converted to “delivered”, the person(s) paid to place the order can leave a review that is considered verifiable and legitimate.
Repeat 5,000 times.
This has been going on for years; however, what I am attributing to a cultural difference and bad luck resulted in a massive amount of reports to the FTC, Postal Service, DHS, FDA, USDA, and various State agencies. For this latest round, unknowing consumers in the U.S. were receiving unsolicited seeds from China (see pic below).
I’m not here to cause panic. Over 9,000 packages were collected by the government (out of over 25,000), and the seeds were deemed harmless and unaltered. Unsolicited packages via Amazon have been arriving at our doorsteps for years. However, most consumers assume it is a gift from an unknowing party or a mistaken shipment. The items are typically harmless, not meant to cause any alarm, and be forgetful.
There was one problem with this round of brushing. The China-based operatives were not culturally aware of how serious Americans view agricultural products from unknown sources. Yes, we’ll buy and eat a random fruit from outside of the U.S., but that is a choice we made, and we relied on the grocer to have quality control measures in place. However, when the source is unknown, or there is a hint of suspicion, a lifetime of USDA propaganda consciously or subconsciously migrates to the forefront of our brain. See the following three images that you may have never seen before, yet immediately understand the messaging and implications.
Being aware of brushing results in a couple of actions to consider. As an active consumer, when shopping online, take a deep dive into the reviews to find those that are relevant and useful to you. Here is a Wikihow article on How To Spot A Fake Review. It’s worth the read and includes visuals like the fake review pictured below.
Lastly, if you receive an unsolicited package and it’s not a bag of cash, report it, and reject it. You can remove yourself from a scam and contribute towards a more authentic, transparent marketplace. Plus, with today’s lens on health and safety, why would you want that?
Have you ever received an unsolicited package and kept it? Comment below and let me know.