[Attached video shows previous Fox 8 coverage of brushing scams]
CLEVELAND (WJW) — With an influx of packages likely landing on your porch this time of the year, local police departments and governments are warning about “brushing” scams.
The City of North Ridgeville and the Westlake Police Department are two area entities warning about the scam.
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So what is it?
According to the explanation on the Westlake PD’s Facebook post , someone receives an unexpected package from Amazon or another company, but there is no information about who sent the package. When the recipient opens the package, there is a QR code they can scan to find out who sent it.
But once that QR code is scanned, all the information on the phone will be sent to the scammers, the post said.
“All personal and financial information is accessible to the scammers and often the victim’s bank accounts are drained,” the post said.
Examples of gifts include rings, bracelets, necklaces, Bluetooth speaker and more. The gift itself can be kept or thrown away, but you should not scan the QR code if you don’t know where the package came from.