Someone sends sex toys from Amazon to strangers. Amazon doesn't know how to stop them.

Would you declare that a thing already paid for came from your store that you did not order? Or would silently use? Such questions in recent weeks have to ask yourself many Americans. Suddenly, from all over the United States, there were reports that people were receiving unexpected goods. Basically - let's say, of an intimate nature. Thousands of incidents have been documented in the country, and very serious money is being spent on it. People panic from such “gifts”, and Amazon has a monumental task in some way to distinguish such purchases from ordinary ones in order to stop the epidemic. Who does this, the secret fetishists or very rich prankers? And what about the “victims” who get free stuff at home?

One of these victims was a girl from Nicky Memphis (she asks not to reveal her last name). When the girl first got a vibrator in a package from Amazon, she thought it was some kind of confusion in the warehouse: Nikki bought mascara, which was supposed to come from day to day. But then she got her mascara, and other alien parcels followed her. Wire adapter, headphones, another sex toy ... No words about the fact that this is someone's gift, no trace. Fearfully. What is most strange, the parcels were not the cheapest. The vibrator that was sent to her was worth $ 25. A pranker or hacker who would send such "presents" to random women would clearly be a passionate man ...

Nikki read an online story about an Englishman who sent erotic things through the Amazon gift service to a girl he cyberprossed. Since the packages for Nikki came from various quite presentable companies, and in total they cost quite significantly, she began to fear that such an Internet maniac was also linked to her, and turned to Amazon technical support. She wanted to know how close to her physically is the one who orders her all these parcels, and whether she should involve the police.

Amazon does not disclose personal information, but Nikki said that she could call the names, and she would be answered "yes" or "no." This simple method, spending a couple of hours, the girl determined the name and surname of the man who bought the goods. And his name in the store account was not the same as on the bank card, and the man was not from her state. Nikki did not find any connection with him.

In the meantime, in the last month, news of families and students receiving Amazon’s strange packages began to come in from everywhere. From Massachusetts to universities in Canada. A student at Ryerson University in Toronto received a vibrator, a community of students at Regina University found an Amazon box with a male sex toy called Fleshlight at their door. Moreover, the avalanche of parcels does not stop by itself. If the "victim" does not contact Amazon and does not ask them to blacklist themselves, new products continue to appear at the door at a frequency of 1-2 per week. Cords, dog collars, USB humidifiers, vibrators, lubricants and so on. Some of the people who turned to journalists, have already collected a “collection” of 15-20 inexpensive things.

What's happening

Nikki unwittingly became part of a big puzzle that Amazon has been taking for several weeks, sources inside the company told Daily Beast. Someone buys unclaimed products, and sends them to apparently random addresses. Internet giant has launched an internal investigation. He is trying to figure out why people suddenly began to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on it, and whether there is any pattern in what goods are bought and sent to whom.

An Amazon spokesman explained to reporters that the unknown packages that appear on the doorsteps of Americans are "part of some bad scheme." According to the store, the addresses and customer names were not received from them by “secret buyers”; data leakage did not occur. So far, Amazon suspects the sellers themselves, and, in order to somehow hinder what is happening, began to punish them by delaying payments and sending their data to law enforcement agencies.

Sources in the company say that it has a theory. Under the name "hacking verified reviews." Amazon uses a system that lists only the opinion of the user who actually bought the product. And since the store sells millions of products from hundreds of thousands of sellers, they have a great interest to somehow draw attention to themselves.

The scheme seems to work like this. Someone creates an account in a store, buys a product and sends it to a random address (so that its real identity is more difficult to track). And further, since the purchase was made from the account, he can write a “confirmed review” on this thing. Naturally, very detailed and positive. If there has been almost no feedback on the product before, one such enthusiastic customer can raise sales of goods several times. And if the seller himself uses this trick, then the bulk of the money spent on the purchase of things will also immediately return to his pocket. It can take several weeks or months from the moment you create an account to the moment you buy a product, plus you can order a couple of cheap goods “for cover” from your account, so it’s very difficult to calculate such Amazon “agents”.

One question remains: why sex toys? The answer here, most likely, lies in psychology. The psychology of those people who suddenly come to the threshold of a package from the store. If someone suddenly sent you a towel, headphones or a frying pan, you most likely will not complain about such a gift of fate. But if you find a vibrator in the box or a huge dildo - this is an occasion to think. Is this an ill-wisher, is it someone's rally, flirt? "Dear, are you hinting at something?"

This idea is supported by the fact that the majority of clients who complained to the police and addressed journalists are women from 20 to 35 years old who are in a relationship. Perhaps because they want to "clear their name" in front of a partner, and make sure that they do not have a secret maniac suitor. And somewhere in another city in the United States, exactly the same customers who received a frying pan quietly and quietly fry eggs.

All this, however, very much worries about Amazon, which is trying to make its customers' name associated only with positive news. In February 2018, according to Brand Finance, its brand became the most valuable in the world, ahead of Google. Now Amazon’s one word, without the entire infrastructure, costs $ 150.8 billion. To stop “strange” packages from coming to customers, the company has, for the time being, following its theory, deletes all reviews posted by such “secret” buyers and sends information to law enforcement agencies. But here is a double-edged sword. If Amazon begins to severely punish stores that are spotted in such a “search engine optimization”, she fears that fraud can begin when the product is ordered from competitors, and is sent to an unsuspecting buyer. Therefore, it can be expected that random parcels in the near future will not stop the Americans from coming.

PS From Amazon and other American stores you can order in Russia - if you use the services of Pochtoy.com. We charge from $ 8.99 for 0.5 kg delivery. And if you register and enter the code Geektimes, you will be credited $ 7.

We have such funny cases, by the way, not yet. At least, out of twenty thousand clients, no one complained about the extra “gift”.