An Arkansas resident who received one of the mysterious seed packages of Chinese origin that were sent to residents across the United States planted them on his property.
“We … planted the seeds just to see what would happen,’’ Booneville resident Doyle Crenshaw told local station KSFM. He added that they were planted before U.S. agriculture officials and local police offices warned people that they might be an invasive species.
“Every two weeks I’d come by and put Miracle-Gro on it, and they just started growing like crazy,’’ Crenshaw said, adding that they are producing a large, white fruit that looks like a squash. The plants also have orange flowers, he said.
“Our concern is from an invasive-pest aspect: These seeds could introduce an invasive weed or an invasive insect pest or a plant disease,” Scott Bray of the Arkansas Department of Agriculture told the news outlet about the seeds.
Across the United States, people reported that they received strange packages of seeds with Chinese text last month.
“The package said it was from China and said ‘studded earrings’ on the outside, and we thought that was a little odd,” Crenshaw said of the package that he received. Many other people said the packages said they contained jewelry.
But some officials said that it’s likely that someone who sent the packages is engaging in an online scam known as “brushing,” where people receive goods they never ordered. The sender then posts a fake customer review in their name to boost sales and positioning on websites such as Amazon.
“We have done some researching and it does appear that these seeds are tied with an online scam called ‘brushing,’” the Whitehouse Police Department in Ohio wrote on Facebook of the strange seeds.
It added, “A brushing scam is an exploit by a vendor used to bolster product ratings and increase visibility online by shipping an inexpensive product to an unwitting receiver and then submitting positive reviews on the receiver’s behalf under the guise of a verified owner.” The department called on people who have received the seeds to contact them to dispose of them.
North Carolina’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services said Monday that the deliveries are probably linked to “an international Internet scam.”
If one planted the seeds, they should “[pull] up the plants” before “double bagging them and putting them in the trash. It’s not a good idea to compost them,” the Tennessee Department of Agriculture said in a similar warning.
