Mysterious packages of unmarked seeds from China are showing up in the mailboxes of area residents, prompting warnings from officials not to plant the contents if you receive one.
The Canada Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) said they are looking into reports of residents being delivered packages from China labelled as beads or jewelry, but actually containing unidentified seeds.
The concern is the seeds could be invasive species to Canada and residents absolutely should not plant them, or even open the contents.
“Unauthorized seeds from other countries could be the seeds of invasive plants, or carry plant pests, which can be harmful when introduced into Canada,” a CFIA spokesperson said.
“The import, production and sale of unregistered seeds risk the introduction of plant varieties and plant genetics that may have negative effects on the Canadian agricultural system and the environment.”
Thames Centre Deputy Mayor Kelly Elliott said she’s heard of at least seven such packages being delivered to her constituents, from Dorchester to Thamesford.
A Thorndale resident also said they received a package about a week ago.
“It’s very bizarre,” Elliott said. “The fear with it is you obviously don’t know what the seeds are … that’s the unnerving part.”
Most of the package descriptions are the same; a white or yellow package envelope, with seeds in unlabelled clear plastic bags inside. Most feature Chinese lettering, a China Post logo, and have the recipients shipping information. In some cases, the contents are marked as beads or jewelry.
Elliott said she’d first heard of the peculiar packages through social media from a friend of hers in Washington state.
Officials in more than 25 states have issued warnings during the past week about a surge of unsolicited packages of seeds, urging residents not to plant the seeds.
Kim Yeats, who lives in north-east London, said a white package marked from Taiwan arrived in her mailbox late last week.
“I didn’t think much of it at the time, just strange as I didn’t recall ordering bean seeds,” she said. “I’m thinking of calling the food inspection agency for clear directions.”
Residents who have received a package they did not order are asked to contact the CFIA Southwest Regional office at 519-691-1300 for further instructions.
Alright, who had "sinister plot to overrun Canada with triffids" for August?
You know, I'm sure I can remember a time in my life where everything that was going on made some sort of sense.
There are hardly any excesses of the most crazed psychopath that cannot easily be duplicated by a normal kindly family man who just comes in to work every day and has a job to do.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)
Replace "ginger" with "n*gger," and suddenly it become a lot less funny, doesn't it?
-- fgalkin
Here in California, we've had the same thing, unsolicited packages from China with unidentified seeds. About twenty seven states in the US have had reports of the seed shipments.
Mysterious packages of unmarked seeds from China are showing up in the mailboxes of area residents, prompting warnings from officials not to plant the contents if you receive one.
The Canada Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) said they are looking into reports of residents being delivered packages from China labelled as beads or jewelry, but actually containing unidentified seeds.
The concern is the seeds could be invasive species to Canada and residents absolutely should not plant them, or even open the contents.
“Unauthorized seeds from other countries could be the seeds of invasive plants, or carry plant pests, which can be harmful when introduced into Canada,” a CFIA spokesperson said.
“The import, production and sale of unregistered seeds risk the introduction of plant varieties and plant genetics that may have negative effects on the Canadian agricultural system and the environment.”
Thames Centre Deputy Mayor Kelly Elliott said she’s heard of at least seven such packages being delivered to her constituents, from Dorchester to Thamesford.
A Thorndale resident also said they received a package about a week ago.
“It’s very bizarre,” Elliott said. “The fear with it is you obviously don’t know what the seeds are … that’s the unnerving part.”
Most of the package descriptions are the same; a white or yellow package envelope, with seeds in unlabelled clear plastic bags inside. Most feature Chinese lettering, a China Post logo, and have the recipients shipping information. In some cases, the contents are marked as beads or jewelry.
Elliott said she’d first heard of the peculiar packages through social media from a friend of hers in Washington state.
Officials in more than 25 states have issued warnings during the past week about a surge of unsolicited packages of seeds, urging residents not to plant the seeds.
Kim Yeats, who lives in north-east London, said a white package marked from Taiwan arrived in her mailbox late last week.
“I didn’t think much of it at the time, just strange as I didn’t recall ordering bean seeds,” she said. “I’m thinking of calling the food inspection agency for clear directions.”
Residents who have received a package they did not order are asked to contact the CFIA Southwest Regional office at 519-691-1300 for further instructions.
Alright, who had "sinister plot to overrun Canada with triffids" for August?
You know, I'm sure I can remember a time in my life where everything that was going on made some sort of sense.
I increasingly think we jumped into a dark comic book timeline when Trump won the election, one where every outlandish conspiracy is actually real, and the world really is run by a secret cabal of Nazis, and the Manchurian Candidate actually exists. Mysterious bioweapons in the mail would just be par for the course at this point.
"I know its easy to be defeatist here because nothing has seemingly reigned Trump in so far. But I will say this: every asshole succeeds until finally, they don't. Again, 18 months before he resigned, Nixon had a sky-high approval rating of 67%. Harvey Weinstein was winning Oscars until one day, he definitely wasn't."-John Oliver
"The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan."-General Von Clauswitz, describing my opinion of Bernie or Busters and third partiers in a nutshell.
I SUPPORT A NATIONAL GENERAL STRIKE TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM OFFICE.
It's a brushing scam. Someone is buying these online to post reviews
"Aid, trade, green technology and peace." - Hans Rosling.
"Welcome to SDN, where we can't see the forest because walking into trees repeatedly feels good, bro." - Mr Coffee
Police warn of 'brushing' scam that sends unsolicited items to local residents by mail
by Bri MalaskaTuesday, July 28th 2020
LUCAS COUNTY, Ohio — A new scam sweeping the nation is a bit different than most: Local residents are receiving suspicious packages for free that they didn't order.
Michael Duschl was shocked when he received a package of masks completely unsolicited.
"My son brought the package in and was just seeing this great package and it was like, 'Huh. Okay. We didn't remember, order anything recent,'" Duschl described.
But when he did some more digging, he discovered he was the most recent target of a scam called "brushing."
"What happens is overseas con artists send you merchandise—sometimes they order things from Amazon—and it just arrives. You didn't pay for it. You didn't order it," said Dick Eppstein, president of the Better Business Bureau Serving Northwest and West Central Ohio and Southeast Michigan.
Eppstein says this scam gives the illusion that the business is credible by finding a person's name and address online, sending the product to them and writing a review using their name.
"They're also boosting sales rankings because they're showing this high volume of product moving from point A to point B and we've learned it's in Arizona, it's in Ohio, it's really pretty much all over the country," Whitehouse Police Deputy Chief Allan Baer said.
The Whitehouse Police Department posted a warning on its Facebook page after a handful of residents received packages with small inexpensive items like socks, jewelry or the most concerning: seeds.
The Ohio Department of Agriculture says you should not open the seed packets or plant them because they could be an invasive species that could be harmful to livestock and local plants that could ultimately lead to increased cost of food production.
"Don't plant them. Don't just throw them in the trash because they could grow in the landfill if you throw them away," Eppstein said.
Experts say you shouldn't be too alarmed that you’ve been hacked or your identity has been stolen, but you should still monitor your credit cards and financial accounts.
"If they put that much effort into trying to scam people and if they took that effort and put it toward doing something good, they'd actually accomplish a lot of stuff," Duschl said.
If you received one of these packages, don't throw it away. Contact your local police department so they can pass it to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service to be tracked.
And if you received seeds, report through Ohio Department of Agriculture's Unsolicited Seed Reporter.
Can't they just I don't know, post a fake review and save the money on shipping?
Never apologise for being a geek, because they won't apologise to you for being an arsehole. John Barrowman - 22 June 2014 Perth Supernova.
Countries I have been to - 14.
Australia, Canada, China, Colombia, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, Germany, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, USA.
Always on the lookout for more nice places to visit.
mr friendly guy wrote: ↑2020-08-01 04:57amCan't they just I don't know, post a fake review and save the money on shipping?
A lot of online retailers have got wise to that, and either only allow reviews from accounts that have actually bought the item from them or make it possible to distinguish the ones that haven't; some Amazon reviews have a "verified purchase" tag, for example.
There are hardly any excesses of the most crazed psychopath that cannot easily be duplicated by a normal kindly family man who just comes in to work every day and has a job to do.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)
Replace "ginger" with "n*gger," and suddenly it become a lot less funny, doesn't it?
-- fgalkin
The seeds are probably not the target product. They are a cheap way to buy something to post a review so your next review carries more algorithmthic weight
"Aid, trade, green technology and peace." - Hans Rosling.
"Welcome to SDN, where we can't see the forest because walking into trees repeatedly feels good, bro." - Mr Coffee
Zaune wrote: ↑2020-07-30 09:30pmYou know, I'm sure I can remember a time in my life where everything that was going on made some sort of sense.
Ex Ignorantia Ad Sapientiam; Ex Luce Ad Tenebras (Out Of Ignorance Into Wisdom; Out Of Light Into Darkness)
Rule #1: Believe the autocrat. He means what he says.
Rule #2: Do not be taken in by small signs of normality.
Rule #3: Institutions will not save you.
Rule #4: Be outraged.
Rule #5: Don’t make compromises.
So the ideal thing to do in this situation is obviously to follow the journalist's advice and turn over the package to law enforcement to track it back to the scammer, but if you did get seeds in the mail and feel the need to dispose of them for whatever reason, here's the way to do it according to a biochemist I know. Roast them first, then throw them away. 400 degrees F in an oven for an hour will work if you somehow ended up with a ton of them, or if you just got a single packet you can probably do it in a pan on a stove. Roast them until thoroughly brown or blackened. This will very definitely destroy the seeds' ability to germinate, rendering them harmless to the environment. You might want to avoid breathing in any smoke just in case-- you never know if its something you are allergic to or if its genetically modified to produce pesticides or something. We once had to do something similar with some definitely GMO corn we got from a manufacturer as a sample-- and somehow we didn't get the memo that it was GMO until after it was in our hands. They specifically told us it wasn't approved for human consumption, and we obviously didn't want a GMO strain getting into the environment. So into the oven it went (they sent us several pounds of it).
Setting fire to them isn't advised because of the smoke issue. If you don't know the species, you don't want to risk exposing yourself to allergens.
"Still, I would love to see human beings, and their constituent organ systems, trivialized and commercialized to the same extent as damn iPods and other crappy consumer products. It would be absolutely horrific, yet so wonderful." —Shroom Man 777 "To Err is Human; to Arrr is Pirate." — Skallagrim
“I would suggest "Schmuckulating", which is what Futurists do and, by extension, what they are." — Commenter "Rayneau"
madd0ct0r wrote: ↑2020-08-01 02:52am
It's a brushing scam. Someone is buying these online to post reviews
Ding-Ding-Ding! We have a winner!
All of the packets are labeled for junk jewelry, the seeds are so he E-Packets hit a sufficient weight to be shipped to the E-Packet treaty nations.
I have come to the conclusion that my subjective account of my motivation is largely mythical on almost all occasions. I don't know why I do things.
J.B.S. Haldane
The Romulan Republic wrote: ↑2020-07-31 05:31pm I increasingly think we jumped into a dark comic book timeline when Trump won the election, one where every outlandish conspiracy is actually real, and the world really is run by a secret cabal of Nazis, and the Manchurian Candidate actually exists. Mysterious bioweapons in the mail would just be par for the course at this point.
I think it’s more likely a dark humor sitcom. I have gone from saying ironically, to half-jokingly, to legitimately believing that the world is a work of fiction operating on sitcom trope rules over the past four years. It’s generated testable predictions that have lent weight to the theory in my personal life, as well as in world events.
As an example, I joked that the “lockdown” period in March-May should be considered a “bottle episode” that could portend a budget-busting Season Finale. In June, we had nationwide protest riots.
We live in a work of fiction.
I had a Bill Maher quote here. But fuck him for his white privelegy "joke".
