Woman gets a FedEx package she never ordered — now she's warning others about what she found inside

For most online shoppers, the common concern is simply the arrival of their package on time at the right address without any damage. However, things turn weird when people start receiving deliveries that they never even ordered. The Federal Trade Commission and cybersecurity experts have been warning consumers about such strange packages for a while. In one such incident, a woman almost fell for a cybercrime scam, but she was able to avoid it because of her quick thinking. In her case, the scammers pretended to represent a reputed international delivery service, FedEx.

In a TikTok video that has since gone viral with more than 3.6 million views, user Tammy, whose username is @thefoxypineapple, shared her unsettling experience. She revealed that one day, a FedEx delivery worker showed up at her door, waiting for her to sign for a package. However, Tammy was suspicious from the beginning because she was confident she hadn't placed an order and wasn't expecting a delivery. Despite these doubts, she signed for the package. As reported by the Daily Dot, when she opened it, she found a little beauty brush wrapped in plastic with a QR code attached to it.

She said, “Normally, I’d be like ‘What is this?’ [then] pick up my phone and scan." She realized it might be a scam after she recalled watching a TikTok video from another user about something similar. The woman continued, “She said, ‘Once you scan it, it has all the information in your phone and your phone just got hacked.'" In the end, she strongly advised her viewers to avoid scanning QR codes on unexpected packages. Also known as quishing, QR code scams are becoming increasingly common. This tactic is a favorite among scammers, who use various approaches to deceive their victims. What Tammy encountered was just one example of the many methods that fraudsters employ.

The government has implemented several ways to combat these scams, as reported by Market Realist. Falling victim to a QR code scam can be a nightmare, warns Maria-Kristina Hayden, CEO and founder of OUTFOXM, Inc., a New York City-based cyber hygiene and resilience firm. As reported by HuffPost, Hayden said, “Not only can QR codes act as malicious links, bringing you to a nefarious website or downloading malware, but they can also be programmed to make calls and send messages to your contacts." She went on to add, “A client of mine scanned a QR code that surreptitiously wrote and sent emails from his account to his entire contact list."

Hayden continued, "The emails contained malicious links that sought to harvest recipients’ bank login information… and friends and family clicked because of the well-worded disguise.” There are plenty of cautionary tales similar to this one to make consumers think twice before scanning just any QR code. The threat is so prevalent that the FBI, Michigan's Attorney General, the Better Business Bureau, and others have all issued warnings. A blog from the Social Security Administration has also detailed key things to verify before scanning any QR code.