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People Keep Receiving Mystery Packets Of Seeds In The Post From China

People Keep Receiving Mystery Packets Of Seeds In The Post From China

Warnings about the incidents have been issued across all 50 US states, and the bizarre trend has now made its way to the UK.

EMS 7

EMS 7

Although the scamming market has gone digital over the past decade, it looks like some chancers are going back to basics by trying their luck through the post.

These are the claims of a growing number of people in the US who have recently reported receiving mystery packages of unidentified seeds through their letterbox - and they appear to be coming from China.

The Metro reports that this bizarre trend has now made its way to the UK too - there have been around 100 reports so far - posing even more questions as to what is going on.

To give you an idea of how widespread the issue is in America, warnings have been issued across all 50 states, with 630 instances in Florida alone.

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Although there's no confirmation as to why these parcels are being sent and who is behind them, the US Department of Agriculture reckons they're part of a 'brushing scam'.

This technique is used in e-commerce to boost a seller's ratings by creating fake orders. A seller might use someone's personal information to place an order themselves and send something cheap in order to validate the sale. This in turn can boost the seller's rating and bring their items to the top of search results on websites.

Whether this is the case or not, US officials are warning anyone who receives one of these parcels - which have Chinese writing on them and are often labelled as containing earrings or jewellery - to not plant the seeds and instead report the incident.

After around 200 residents in north Texas disclosed receiving a puzzling package, the state issued a warning while Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller gave instructions to residents, reports FOX 4.

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He said: "We don't want people opening those up, don't put them in the mail, certainly don't plant them. Contact us. Let us pick them up. Treat them like they are radioactive like they are Kryptonite."

The USDA is now working with the Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection alongside other federal agencies to try and figure out what's going on.

Similar advice was released in the UK by the Animal and Plant Health Agency of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

The organisation said in a statement: "Biosecurity is of vital importance and we have robust checks in place to protect our plants and wildlife, including for online plant sales.

"We are currently investigating packages of seeds marked as 'ear studs' sent to people in the UK. Anyone who has received such seeds should not plant them and instead report them to us."

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Topics: UK, Delivery, China, US