Lansdale Borough Police Department has joined the growing list of law enforcement and government agencies warning residents about suspicious seed packets and unordered jewelry being delivered to local residents from overseas—predominantly from China.
“The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture is warning residents to report any unordered and mislabeled packages of seeds from overseas,” reads a portion of the release. “They are arriving in envelopes with Chinese lettering, often with the words ‘China Post’ and sometimes labeled to contain jewelry.”
Police said anyone receiving the seeds should not open them or plant them, and recipients should avoid opening the outer packaging or mailing materials if possible. Anyone who receives those types of packages is asked to report the incident to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s confidential Anti-Smuggling Hotline at 800-877-3835 or via email at [email protected].
As of last week, the Department of Agriculture had identified 14 species of illegally mailed seeds from China, which included herbs like mint, rosemary and others, including mustard and cabbage, according to a report by Fox Business. Though the unsolicited seeds have proved to be harmless to this point, officials continue to urge residents to not plant them as investigations continue.
Many have begun to suspect that the seed and cheap jewelry deliveries are part of a brushing scam, which uses real addresses in other countries to boost review ratings on websites like Amazon.com.
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