A baffled Virginia woman says she has been bombarded with more than 100 Amazon packages that have turned up on her doorstep of late, but she never actually ordered any of them. Cindy Smith said she quickly became confused when the random deliveries addressed to a Lixiao Zhang recently started piling up outside her Prince William County home. The mounds of boxes ended up containing 1,000 headlamps for running and biking, 800 glue guns, and dozens of children’s binoculars. In a bid to get rid of the products and avoid having them dumped in a landfill, Smith said she started handing them out to residents of her neighborhood. She also gave some products to dog shelters, veterinary clinics, and even her local Burger King. Smith said she initially thought the packages were part of a “brushing scam” — when an online vendor creates a fake sale of their product and then sends the package to a random address to boost their Amazon review rating. However, a probe determined that Smith’s case is likely tied to a “vendor returns” scheme that involves sellers trying to remove unsold products from various Amazon fulfillment centers. The return packaging labels tied to the packages Smith received were traced to 15 fulfillment centers in 9 different states. Amazon conducted an investigation and determined that Lixiao Zhang had violated their policy and the account has since been closed. Smith is now hopeful that there will be no further packages.
