Pittsburgh-area police warn of scams

GREENSBURG, Pa. (KDKA) — You’ve heard of online shopping and package scams, but what about package scams that come right to your door?

The city of Greensburg and several other police departments around the Pittsburgh region want people to be aware of a new scam called the brush scam.

While there have been no reports of this scam happening locally, police say it is happening in the US and people locally should be aware.

The way a brush scam works is someone receives a package of something they didn’t order with no return address. When the recipient opens the package, there is a QR code to scan to see who sent you the package or gift. Once you scan the QR code, that’s where they get you.

Bridget Carey, editor-at-large for CNET, recently talked about this scam on CBS Mornings. She says this is an easy scam this time of year because people either receive gifts in the mail or they’ve lost track of things they bought online.

“What I’ve seen some people post is they get packages of junk,” Carey said, “like a dollar makeup brush, and it has a QR code attached to it. So it doesn’t cost them anything to send it to you, but now you’re curious and you go through the motions. You know if it’s junk, then just say, ‘it’s not worth scanning the code’.”

Once the QR code is scanned, fraudsters can gain access to your phone and accounts. And once they do, they can ruin your life. Similar QR code scams have occurred around the country recently with parking meters.

Experts say the best course of action is simply not to scan any codes that come from an unsolicited package.

But what if you accidentally scan the code?

“It’s the same as if you were fooled by any fishing scam,” Carey said. “If you gave someone your password, change your password. If your credit card was involved, you need to call the credit card companies. Maybe you put a freeze on it. It’s pretty much the same method we’ve always been scammed , but now it’s just another way to cheat us, going through a link on a phone instead of actually clicking on the email link.”

So again, don’t scan unsolicited QR codes. And by the way, the US Postal Service says that any unsolicited items sent to you by law you must keep.