The 'brushing' scam that's behind mystery parcels
> According to Citizens' Advice, if an item is addressed to you, there has been no previous contact with the company, and it arrives out of the blue, then you can keep it.<p>You might not want to, through.  I an was almost-victim of another scam where the scammers opened an account at Best Buy using my information with (someone else's) stolen credit card, and ordered a laptop and shipped it to my address.  I returned it to the store immediately and notified Best Buy of the scam, but the next work day a FedEx guy came with a prepaid label (from the scammers) to pick it up.  The idea apparently was to confuse me about the return, so I'd accidentally ship the laptop to the scammers rather than Best Buy.<p>It would've worked too, but I'd already returned the package in person and called the police (because I'd assumed the scammer's plan was to steal it from my doorstep). I didn't realize something was wrong with the pickup until the Fedex guy was almost ready to drive away, but I waved him down to get a look at the label.<p>The name/address on the was that of a recent immigrant living in New York City.  My understanding is that he's probably just a schmuck who got taken in by some fake work from home scam to transship the stolen items.  He may even think he's working for Best Buy to process returns.<p>In any case, I think if I'd kept the laptop I'd have been guilty of receiving stolen property, at least.  At worst, I could have been assumed to be a bumbling scammer and charged with credit card fraud (though, being a white professional worker, that probably wouldn't happen since I would probably be given the benefit of the doubt, but other people wouldn't be so lucky).