BRUSHING is a new scam where third-party Amazon vendors send products to people who never purchased them.

       More than one million households across the UK have fallen victim to "brushing" so, what is it and how can I avoid being scammed?

       1

       Amazon said it was doing all it can to prevent 'brushing' scammers Credit: PA What is a brushing scam?

       A "brushing" scam is when a third-party Amazon seller sends products out to people who never ordered them.

       This innocuous scam exploits Amazon's search engine ranking system and its algorithms, which favours items with high sale volumes and good reviews.

       According to consumer group Which? sellers are posting low-priced items to people who never bought them and recording them as legitimate purchases.

       This then pushes their items up their search rankings, and encourages more people to buy them.

       Some sellers are known to have created fake accounts for people they send the items to and leave give-star reviews.

       Which? ran a survey of 1.839 people and found around four per cent had received a mystery package from Amazon.

       They said parcels included things like magnetic eyelashes, eyelash serum, toys for pets and children, Bluetooth accessories, iPhone cases, frisbees, medical gloves, and more.

       All these items are cheap to ship in large volume, making them ideal for such a scam.

       What should I do if I receive a parcel?

       Contact Amazon's customer services team and let them know.

       According to Which? Some 63 per cent kept the free package, while 28 per cent threw it away and 16 per cent gave it away.

       Which? director of policy and advocacy Rocio Concha said: "Consumers should be able to trust that the popularity and reviews of products they are buying online are genuine, so it is troubling that third-party sellers appear to be using brushing scams to game Amazon Marketplace.

       "Amazon needs to do more to thoroughly investigate instances of brushing scams and take strong action against sellers that are attempting to mislead consumers."

       What have Amazon said about the scam?

       Amazon said sellers get names and addresses from publicly available sources.

       They also said customers can do whatever they want with the items, and don't need to return them.

       The company said: "Orchestrated by bad actors who procure names and addresses from various external sources, ‘brushing’ is a scheme affecting all online marketplaces.

       "We estimate that less than 0.001 per cent of Amazon orders are impacted by brushing as Amazon has robust processes in place to prevent abuse from impacting our reviews, search rankings and other customer experiences.

       "We will never stop improving the sophistication of abuse prevention in our store, and we will continue to take the appropriate enforcement actions, including support for law enforcement organisations in their efforts to hold bad actors accountable.

       "We strongly encourage those who have received unsolicited packages to report them to our customer services team so that we can investigate fully and take the appropriate actions."