Reporting potential mail fraud, if I was seemingly not the victim?

September 12, 2015 7:59 AM

I received a sealed, empty, business-size envelope in the mail from a non-Googleable entity called "Buy3rzParadise" claiming to be located in the Galleria in Atlanta. It had a USPS First-Class Package sticker deliberately stuck onto it (with a tracking number, which says it was sent from Oakland) that says the "package" weighs 4oz. This seems like Amazon/ebay fraud, but I haven't ordered anything from Amazon/ebay that hasn't arrived. I've also only lived at this mailing address for a few months.

Maybe it's a gift? And whoever sent me the gift has now been defrauded? I have no idea. Is it worth reporting this to USPS or...someone?

posted by unknowncommand to Law & Government (9 answers total)

I really think you're overthinking this. It was probably a weird simple mistake or someone's kid that came to the office one day goofing off. I'd just throw it out and not give it a second thought.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:20 AM on September 12, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: It is Google-able (you just have to put quotes around the name). Looks like they have an Amazon marketplace and are listed as "just launched."

Have you checked your credit card transactions to make sure there's not a charge?
posted by jaguar at 8:27 AM on September 12, 2015

Response by poster: Thank you so much, jaguar! Oddly enough, Google still isn't showing me any results for it (one word or two, with quotes or without, even when I'm clicking to confirm I want that spelling), so that's incredibly helpful.
posted by unknowncommand at 8:36 AM on September 12, 2015 [1 favorite]

Thinking it might be some kind of attempt at leetspeak or something I Googled it with the 3/E conversion. There is an Etsy dealer called buyerzparadise and also one on eBay.
posted by Miko at 11:18 AM on September 12, 2015

No, it is not worth reporting. You received an empty envelope which has no value and didn't cost you (or anyone else) anything and there has not been any request for money. Therefore, there is no fraud.
posted by JimN2TAW at 11:29 AM on September 12, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: My brother was recently scammed on eBay. He ordered a guitar. The seller shipped the item quickly and provided the tracking number. A couple of days later the package was marked as delivered. The catch is he never received the guitar. He lives in a small town and worked with the postmaster to determine the package had been delivered to different address in the same post office. As luck would have it my brother was friends with the recipient. She retrieved the package - it was a 2oz envelope with a cryptic note.

In the end he was able to get his money back, but had he lived in a larger town I'm not sure how easy it would have been. As far as eBay was concerned the package had been delivered.

Could someone similar be going on?
posted by phil at 12:34 PM on September 12, 2015 [9 favorites]

Ah, yes, interesting -- so this could be a dummy package for a fraudulent shipment that never existed. Yes, I'd report that. It may be a missing piece to someone else's puzzle.
posted by Miko at 1:01 PM on September 12, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I've been rooked by this kind of thing as an ebay seller, where someone basically sends my item to a dead drop(which would be your house), receives it, then the person files a credit card dispute and i have to go through a bunch of garbage.

I've also seen the other side, as described above, where "nothing" is shipped.

I would absolutely report this to the postal inspector. If it's not a big deal then they won't pursue it, but the most recent time i was roped in to this it really helped the card company, paypal, and the postal service to add it to their web of what was going on and shut down the scammer.

Just because you weren't charged anything and only received an empty envelope doesn't mean there isn't a scam going on, or that you're not part of it. You're just the dummy/drop address, and it's possible the next package wont be empty and they'll be waiting to snatch it from your porch/box before you get it during the workday, etc.

Report it.
posted by emptythought at 12:33 AM on September 13, 2015 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: In case this helps shed any more light on the situation, today I received another empty envelope with the same kind of First Class USPS shipping label. This one says it was sent from "NJ thrift" at an address that doesn't exist. When I search the tracking number, though, it says that the package originated a few zip codes away from me in NYC, then made its way to McHenry, IL. After a bunch of "Processing Exceptions" in Chicago, it came back here. Off to make another report...
posted by unknowncommand at 5:09 PM on September 28, 2015