Have you ever found yourself involved in a scam without any of your consent? Here is how it works. In this article, we will give you a brief insight into what is this brushing scam? How may you get involved in this? How is your data being misused? We will be answering all these questions, so keep reading till the end to protect yourself from these diddles.
In the United States but all the other countries, the fraud cases nowadays are being increased rapidly. We are in a world where we share all our data on the web without knowing that our data may put us at risk. People are ready to do anything to get money. Let us know how people may use you in this scam.
What is a brushing scam?
Have you ever got an order delivered to your address that you never ordered? When you receive these types of orders, the first thought that occurs in your mind is that someone wanted to surprise you by sending this.
So then, you start asking your friends, relatives, and acquaintances about the order only to know that none of them are responsible for this.
This happens because few of the sellers who sell their products through online marketing in some popular organizations such as Amazon and Flipkart select some real customers who usually buy things online.
Then they create accounts on these applications with fake names and order products for the address of the selected real users. The main point lies here in getting the lesson.
Suppose you ordered a watch from a seller on Amazon, then the seller will have your address. The seller who has some real contact addresses sells these details to the new sellers.
After the new seller’s order products for you, they will rate and review the products from their account. This is what a brushing scam is.
Why do sellers do brushing scams?
If a seller is new, then chances are more that he won’t get any orders because of zero ratings and zero reviews. So, to have good ratings and reviews, they will use fake accounts and order products because you are only eligible to review a product once you buy it.
In the United States, the percentage of rising brushing scams increased to 67% from 32% in just one year.
Does it harm you?
You might be thinking that, how can it harm me when I am just receiving a product for free. It is an advantage for you that you are getting things without spending money. If you think like this, you are precisely a rat going into the box when we keep cheese as bait.
Where the major problem is, what is they use this data of yours in some cybercrime? Then this will be a lifetime problem for you, right. It would be best if you were very cautious when you find yourself in such frauds.
The first step you need to do is report the seller to the marketing organization under marketing fraud. Now we will see what should be done not to let this happen to you.
What to do if this happens?
If you are receiving products from unknown persons, then you should do these things.
- First of all, report the seller from whom you got the item.
- Then with the tracking number available on the product, try to track the account from which the order has been placed.
- Also, report the account to the leading marketing organization.
- Then change your username and password for that application.
- Also, use the two-step verification for your login.
- Link your mobile number so that you can get a one-time password whenever you login into your account.
So let your account be private, and do not share these details with anyone online or offline to secure your details.
How to prevent this type of scam?
It is entirely our responsibility to privatize our data not to give data hackers any chances to hack your details. You may do the following to serve the purpose.
- Use different passwords for different applications.
- Do not click on the suspicious links from your inbox; the link may hack your email and password. If this is done, everything related to the email will get leaked.
- Don’t login into every website that you browse.
- Do not use your applications on other mobiles or laptops.
- If you connect your mobiles to any IOT applications such as Tv or AC, then remember to change the default username and password.
We believe this helps you to protect yourself from marketing scams and personal data leakage.
You can share your views in the comments section.