An online vendor scheme caused a seemingly endless stream of Amazon boxes to arrive at a woman’s Virginia doorstep, according to a local report.
Prince William County resident Cindy Smith received over 100 boxes containing 1,000 headlamps designed for running and biking, 800 children’s glue guns and dozens of children’s binoculars despite never ordering the objects, WUSA9 reported July 27.
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“They came from everybody,” Smith told the outlet. “FedEx, Amazon, all of them were delivering boxes.” (RELATED: Major Tech Companies Hit With $218 Million In Fines)
Every box was addressed to “Lixiao Zhang,” WUSA9 reported. Smith said no one by that name lives at her address.
Upon closer examination, the Amazon packing slips accompanying the unordered deliveries were “vendor returns” to Lixaio Zhang that had been shipped to Smith’s address. The addresses on the packing slips corresponded to 15 Amazon Warehouse Fulfillment Centers across nine states, WUSA9 found.
Amazon then discovered the individual who sold the items, Lixaio Zhang, “violated Amazon policy by creating removal orders with Cindy Smith’s address,” according to WUSA9.
“Amazon has systems in place to detect suspicious behavior by sellers, and teams in place to investigate and stop prohibited activity,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement to the outlet. “The seller account that was engaged in this abusive activity has been closed. There is no place for fraud at Amazon and we will continue to pursue all measures to protect our store and hold bad actors accountable.”
Smith is not the first person to fall victim to such a scheme, according to WUSA9. Liz Geltman of Northwest D.C. reportedly experienced a similar onslaught of packages in May, receiving several shipments of children’s sheets she never ordered.
“It was two rows almost up to the covering the door,” Geltman told the outlet. “Like these big towering blocks of you know, you know, children’s blocks of Legos all the way up to the covering the door of my house.”