https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/s...eed-packets-from-china/ar-BB17dx0Z?li=BBnb7Kz Officials in at least six states are urging residents to report any unsolicited packages of seeds that appear to have been sent from China, warning that they might be invasive or otherwise harmful. © Washington State Department of Agriculture State agriculture officials are urging people who received unsolicited packages of seeds not to plant them. The seeds, which appear to have been shipped from China, may be invasive. The agriculture departments in Washington State, Louisiana, Kansas, Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio have issued statements in recent days, noting that residents had reported receiving packages of seeds in the mail that they had not ordered. Based on photos, the seeds appear to have been mailed in white pouches displaying Chinese lettering and the words “China Post,” though photos released by the Ohio Department of Agriculture show that seeds have also been sent in yellow envelopes. Some of the packages were labeled to say they contained jewelry, according to the Kansas Department of Agriculture. The Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry reported that some of the packages were also labeled to say they contained earbuds or toys. Packages of seeds have also been sent to residents in Utah and Arizona, according to local news reports. Officials are warning people not to plant the seeds. It was not immediately clear what types of seeds they were, but Mike Strain, the Louisiana agriculture and forestry commissioner, said in an interview that it appeared that waterlily seeds were among those received by residents of his state. Sign up for the Morning Briefing newsletter The police in Whitehouse, Ohio, where a resident reported receiving seeds, said the packages appeared to be a part of a “brushing” fraud. “A brushing scam,” the department said on its Facebook page, “is an exploit by a vendor used to bolster product ratings and increase visibility online by shipping an inexpensive product to an unwitting receiver and then submitting positive reviews on the receiver’s behalf under the guise of a verified owner.” Although the seeds did not appear to be “directly dangerous,” the department said, “we would still prefer that people contact us to properly dispose of the seeds.” Kentucky’s agriculture commissioner, Ryan Quarles, asked residents to report unsolicited packages of seeds to the state’s Agriculture Department, writing on Twitter that they should “put the package and seeds in a zip lock bag and wash your hands immediately.” Michael Wallace, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, said on Monday that the department had received “over 900 emails and several hundred telephone calls” from people who said they had received unsolicited packages of seeds in the mail. Some of those reports came from people in other states, including Maryland, Texas and Florida, he said. “It’s a widespread issue,” he said. Mr. Strain, the Louisiana agriculture and forestry commissioner, said on Monday that his department had received more than 150 phone calls from people reporting unsolicited shipments of seeds, including some that appeared to have been sent from Uzbekistan. The department had confirmed that about 100 packages of seeds had been sent to residents across the state, he said. “We are picking packages up,” he said. “We’re sending our field personnel as soon as a call comes up.” The department had heard from some residents who said they had planted the seeds. The department, he added, planned “to destroy whatever is planted.” The U.S. Agriculture Department’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has been notified about the seed packages, said Cecilia Sequeira, a spokeswoman for the service. The agency was working with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and state agriculture departments “to prevent the unlawful entry of prohibited seeds and protect U.S. agriculture from invasive pests and noxious weeds,” Ms. Sequeira said. She urged anyone who received the seeds in the mail to contact state plant regulatory officials or A.P.H.I.S. officials in their state. “Please hold onto the seeds and packaging, including the mailing label, until someone from your state department of agriculture or A.P.H.I.S. contacts you with further instructions,” Ms. Sequeira said. “Do not plant seeds from unknown origins.” The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment. Carolee Bull, a professor who leads the Department of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology at Penn State University, said that planting unidentified seeds could be harmful. “The reason that people are concerned is — especially if the seed is the seed of a similar crop that is grown for income and food, or food for animals — that there may be plant pathogens or insects that are harbored in the seed,” she said. Seed introduction is tightly regulated in the United States, Professor Bull said. The Plant Protection and Quarantine program, which is operated by the Agriculture Department’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, has strict rules for the importation of plants and seeds. “Say that when I import seed into the country that has not been here before — wheat seed, for example — I know they’ll bring it in and they’ll actually grow it out at the A.P.H.I.S. facility to check it for disease,” Professor Bull said.
“A brushing scam,” the department said on its Facebook page, “is an exploit by a vendor used to bolster product ratings and increase visibility online by shipping an inexpensive product to an unwitting receiver and then submitting positive reviews on the receiver’s behalf under the guise of a verified owner.” I understand nothing of the above. Does anyone else? Whether it's a private scam or Chinese government engineered, it's probably only out of curiosity that one would plant unknown seeds to see what grows.
If a lot of folks are getting the seeds, how many are really going to be turned in? Me thinks that human curiosity will win out and someone will raise up a new type of body switching melon or maybe something along the line of a carnivorous talking plant that says, “feed me”. Something devious, ominous and something that cannot be stopped by....wearing a mask! (fade in the soundtrack for “invasion of the body snatchers”) or Actually, I’d find it hard to turn the seeds in without trying at least one first but yeah, maybe I’d grit my teeth and call the feds. Dunno.
No. It doesn't make sense to me. I can only suppose it would be a way of introducing something to the continent that we don't want. I would probably plant them, but in an inside container, just to see if I could figure out what it was.
I read that, too, and I have a guess at what it means. Say a Chinese vendor is selling a product on Amazon , or some other online shopping website. They send out lots of packets filled with nothing but a handful of pumpkin seeds (or whatever those seeds are), but they list it as a product sale for something else on Amazon, and show that they have bunches of this item sold . Next, they go to Amazon (or whatever sales website), and write some reviews, supposedly from people who bought the item, which makes it sounds like people who purchased it really like it. Okay, I looked up “brushing scam”, and it is actually somewhat similar to my possible guess above. In the article, it talks about people receiving packages with actual merchandise that they didn’t order, and then the company also posts fake reviews for the product. Since the money goes back to the scammer, they are not losing a whole lot of money by sending out the product for a fake order; but it would appear that this takes it even one step further, because you only receive a bag of seeds, and not whatever the designated product is supposed to be. https://www.bbb.org/article/news-re...-scam-indicates-a-serious-problem-for-victims
I'm more confused than before. Why would they need to send a product to a real person to write fake reviews of the product if the real person has no input? It's ok, though. Don't explain further. I'm an important person with many more important things to think about.
Maybe instead of seeds, some vendor on Amazon will send you a book called, “Important things to think about” so you can sit back and think about the importance of why you got a free book you didn’t order. Ah but the possibilities are indeed mind boggling!
I am confused about, I think, the same questions that @Dwight Ward has expressed. If the intent was to post fake reviews of a product, why would it be necessary to ship a product, whatever it might be? It seems that it would be easier and cheaper for them to simply hire some fake reviewers, and have them buy the product so that their reviews would be posted as from verified buyers.
And that was my thought also. An awful lot of work and expense for something they can do from where they are. So that makes feel that this is not that brushing scam but something more nefarious. Human curiosity is the perfect vehicle to carry out some sort of really bad thing. Remember the envelopes with white powdery substances .. and some were anthrax. People would open even when they didn't recognize a return address or the lack of a return address. We have a thirst for knowledge and a need to find out what something means or is. Given that these are being shipped from China should - at the very least - put some bit of alarm in anyone who gets them. But curiosity .. what is it can get these seeds planted and who knows what horrible things could happen to our soil or crops or even wildlife. I haven't gotten any and hope I don't but if I did I would turn them in and not even open the pkg.
China is engaging in biological warfare against the U.S. First it was the virus and now seeds that only China knows for what purpose. I would not doubt that the U.S. Department of Agriculture will start some to find out what they are.