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BBB Cleveland Business Tip: What if your business was used as part of a brushing scam?
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Recently, a local automotive supplies manufacturer contacted Better Business BureauⓇ (BBBⓇ) Serving Greater Cleveland about concerns that their products were unwillingly and unknowingly used in a “brushing” scam. A brushing scam occurs when a third-party company ships items to unsuspecting consumers and then uses the transaction to improve its ranking on popular e-commerce sites. The local company was alerted to the activity by senior citizens surprised to receive packages. At first glance, brushing scams themselves seem innocuous. Consumers may not be aware they are victims of a brushing scam when they suddenly start receiving unordered merchandise. However, scammers and unscrupulous businesses will order products and use a “dummy” address of a consumer to give the impression that the individual at the address is a “verified” product buyer on a third-party platform such as Amazon.com. The scammer repeats until they boost their products’ ratings and sales numbers.
Businesses may be concerned or confused when receiving consumer reports about never-ordered products. Some consumers may be distressed that they are on the hook for product charges even though, by law, consumers do not have to pay for items they did not order. That does not mean consumers may still not be confused or worried they are getting scammed and blame the company they are receiving items from.
What can businesses do? BBB Serving Greater Cleveland recommends companies who believe they are victims of brushing should:
- Review customer orders - Once a business realizes its products are being used as part of a brushing scam, staff should review their recent order history for any “red flags.” The red flags can be out-of-country IP addresses, IP addresses that don’t match the consumer’s location, orders using fake phone numbers, and orders with different billing and shipping addresses. These characteristics are not necessarily 100% indicators of a brushing scam, but they are details that should be cross-referenced with information on known addresses used for brushing orders. Once abusive accounts and corresponding IP addresses are identified, companies can block these (or “blacklist” them) from accessing their website.
- Secure your eCommerce website - Companies can help prevent brushing by implementing a few authentication methods for users placing orders online. Additionally, both of the following tips are recommended to enhance cybersecurity by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which is part of the US Department of Commerce.
- Use a CAPTCHA generator - CAPTCHA stands for “Completely Automated Public Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart.” CAPTCHA tests are designed to help a website differentiate between machine and human users. Installing a CAPTCHA generator on a company’s e-commerce website can help prevent bots from using a website to place large amounts of orders for brushing.
- Use multi-factor authentication - Companies can also help prevent brushing by implementing multi-factor authentication (MFA) on their websites. Requiring verification of a phone number or email address may discourage companies from engaging in brushing because fake information cannot be easily used.
- Let consumers know - Posting an alert or notification on a company webpage, social media, or BBB Business Profile won’t necessarily stop bad actors from brushing company products. It will, however, show consumers a company is engaged and aware of the problem. It also helps educate and show the public that the company is as much a victim of a brushing scam as the consumer is.
- Advise consumers to refuse shipments of unwanted and unopened merchandise. This requires minimal effort on the consumers’ part. It is a way a package can be returned to the sender, and a company can recover a product that may have been otherwise thrown away. Remember also to include a company contact in announcements and encourage consumers to report the scam. The information consumers provide can be useful in identifying bad accounts.
Finally, companies should remember that the perpetrators behind brushing scams are often never identified. These businesses are typically located overseas, in foreign countries where USA-based companies have little legal recourse.
If you are a consumer affected by this type of scam, you can read more about brushing scams here.
For more information
Learn more ways to improve your business by visiting the BBB business news feed and BizHQ. Read about scams targeting businesses on BBB's Business Scam HQ. Sign up for BBB's weekly Scam Alert emails to learn about new, emerging scams.
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Additional Resources
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