Public asked to report receipt of any unsolicited packages of seeds
vdacs.virginia.gov
vdacs.virginia.gov
The shipping portion is necessary because they need the tracking info for the sale to be counted.
edit:oops, accidentally mixed up churning with brushing. churning is something else
There was an almost identical scam which has been going on for a while called "Brushing"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brushing_(e-commerce)
Some of it is to get the "verified purchase" reviews, but the specific discussion was around the Alibaba IPO and whether it can be used to inflate stock price via fake revenues.
I only was able to track down the glowing review for the bartender kit, I have no idea where the other stuff was purchased from.
Though optimistically, perhaps the worst and most destructive invasive threats have already arrived?
Apparently however small innocuous packets/letters don't receive quite as much screening, as I've heard of people getting marijuana seeds in the mail just fine.
It's far more difficult than drug smuggling which only works in some reasonable quantity - and becomes more like information smuggling in biological form where you only need one copy.
"The precedent-setting agreement classifies a spacecraft as an export. Once launched, satellite components were judged to be “severed from the possibility of trade within the United States” and therefore considered to be exports, according to Customs officials."
If you are interested in bird conservation in NZ, please visit Karori park in Wellington and contribute.
BTW: some parks in US also have installed brushes to wipe your boots for preventing the transmission of invasive species seeds. I think there are a few in Wisconsin that I remember.
I spent 5$ on these a while back with some friends, about 50% never arrived and the other 50% didn't sprout. Could be my bad though.
Starting in the 1700's with botanists traveling the world to collect and disseminate them. Which gave us modern corn, wheat, flowering plants, grasses, succulents and nearly everything we grow, harvest and appreciate today. May be a little late to start being concerned about this.
Not inevitable at all. Try arriving in Australia with a piece of fruit in your hand luggage, or try arriving in New Zealand with mud on your walking boots, and see what happens.
The seeds arrived months later, well after planting season, from Kazakhstan. The customs declaration called them plastic beads, but they were definitely seeds. I destroyed them, because I couldn't know for sure they really were what they said they were - seems unlikely a niche regional American plant would be available in Kazakhstan.
Would Australia really be able to stop these cases where they lie on the customs form?
Maybe a little too soon to just give up completely?
Should be easy to catch these.
A lot of these thermometers also aren't approved. They haven't done a 510k submittal to market these products in the US. Please check that any thermometer you buy on Amazon has a 510k approval letter logged by the FDA, or it may not provide accurate temperature information.
I found one obvious one the other day, but after about 15 minutes of searching couldn't work out how to report it without a seller account..
My impression is that Amazon doesn't want to know: good reviews, fake or not, drive more transactions in the short term.
It's incredibly despicable people are finding a way to risk people's lives over covid for a dollar in profit
So what's the point of sending out anything at all?
Just include any old tracking number for any other legit purchase as proof of sending something on an illegit purchase.
How isn’t this enabling fraud?
Shouldn’t be able to completely change the listing. Versión bumps might be ok maybe?
This was a "Ultralight Backpacking Canister Camp Stove with Piezo Ignition 3.9oz!" for about $8. Now it is some sort of headphone jack. Several things like that, where the product that was previously ordered... changed. Most of the comments for this one are still about the stove.
I wonder if that's also what happened to this one, although it's only the picture that's out of place (but also amusingly relevant): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FLGZD46
Someone should weaponise the ability to change the product description to embarrass Amazon in to fixing the problem.
https://www.techradar.com/sg/news/this-1tb-microsd-card-high...
All Amazon cares about is sales. Nothing else.
But...how do I get the gas base for my headphone jack adapter then? Well, at least it has an adjustable flame.
Hell, don’t let the product name change. Have a base name and an extension that can be appended and edited, with a text requirement for each (eg 12 characters minimum for the product name and 30 characters max for revision extension.) Do something similar with the description content and have a space for product changes/enhancements following an uneditable and mandatory product description.
Amazon doesn’t because they don’t care. It must not be costing them much money because we know they’re watching the numbers closely.
I thought maybe it was the publication trying to adjust their demographics to increase rates (we live in a zip code with lots of college graduates and high incomes).
I don't understand. Why do they need to ship anything in the box at all? They could ship empty boxes and still have tracking numbers show as delivered.
You may have heard of the Singles Day shopping event, it's common for sellers to boost their revenue that day to meet requirements from platforms, like selling a cheap T-shirt for $150 then refund it upon receiving the package.
That package would be taken by an agent who would rip it and throw it away onto some strip of farming land along a busy road, while driving there at night, reasonably far away from home. The agent would not understand that this action is the "payload" of the mission, and would never associate the incident with the seeds' country of origin.
If I can come up with this trivial plan in 5 mins, a secret service would, too.
So no, this certainly is not a clandestine operation by a serious nefarious actor, it's a silly e-commerce shtick by a small-time seed seller.
It’s a weird way to flex, братан, but the diplomatic and psychological impact of the attack is far more effective than the attack itself.
Example: Russian poisoning suspects say they were only visiting cathedral
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/sep/13/russian-tele...
What's worrying to me is that it's by no means unique to Russia, even if they have perfected it. The current president of the United States does not consider himself above using the exact same rhetorical strategy.
I'm always curious about new slang or jargon but can't place this sense of 'Bratan' in the context of espionage/geopolitics. Flexing brotherhood? Flexing manliness?
Most Guinness World Records are weird flexes: not hard-fought limits of discovered human ability, but rather something one person decided to prove they could do that nobody else has really even cared to challenge them about since.
They are sending these seeds to many people in the US, aka PRC supporters. Or even those pressured to do their work.
And they simply got the address wrong, a few times out of thousands.
Invasive species can destroy an economy. Devastate it.
I'm not saying the PRC is doing this, but if I was trying to harm the US.. I'd do all sorts of evil things like this.
> PRC supporters. Or even those pressured to do their work.
I'm not sure why you're being down-voted, this is entirely a viable exercise in economic disruption (whether intentional or not). You can definitely get at least 1 in 1000 to plant them (intentionally or unintentionally).
Remember for example the old trick of leaving USBs in company car parks. You can tell people a billion times not to plug random crap into their machines, but you'll find at least one person willing to do so at each company. The problem got so bad that they had to glue the USB ports at some places.
> Invasive species can destroy an economy. Devastate it.
100%, it's why many Countries have such very strict laws regarding bringing organic foreign goods across the border.
> I'm not saying the PRC is doing this, but if I was trying
> to harm the US.. I'd do all sorts of evil things like
> this.
If they are shipping from China, you can likely say they are originating from China. Whether or not it is nefarious is another question altogether. With just a few thousand dollars (to cover shipping) they could cause massive damage.
This actually happens all the time as it happens, people buy random seeds from Amazon (for example) and receive something that should really not be planted in local soil. Without planting them, it can be quite hard for the average person to tell them apart.
But again, if I were in charge I would never ever give the people packaging the seeds in China any address in the US except the parcel consolidation service address, or any idea that such other addresses may exist.
And look, I did not serve in the secret service a single day. I bet people in the Chinese secret service department that works on clandestine operations abroad are at least as qualified as me.
For those that don't get the joke (this is a joke)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/nation-now/2017/03/20/c...
plantable seed paper:
https://buddyburst.com/products/plantable-seed-paper/postcar...
I had heard about these types of shipping scams, but had never experienced it personally until this. I was so intrigued that I immediately planted the seeds for fun (I think they’re cucumbers).
I now realize that I was extremely ignorant. I wasn’t aware of the danger of invasive species.
Maybe I’m paranoid, but I decided to rip up the plants and throw them away.
What is more likely: review scam or elaborate bioterrorism with an easily detectable, unreliable distribution mechanism? Never mind the complete lack of proposed harm. What is the evil plot? Destruction of the US cucumber industry?
Contrast that with the flood of fentanyl, which was/is real CCP-sponsored asymmetrical warfare with plausible deniability. Highly effective, with a side irony. Now that was an elegant way to damage a society.
That said, I hope you washed your hands after disposing of the plants. If it is Trichosanthes kirilowii (Chinese cucumber, snake gourd), the roots contain a ricin-like protein.
given the sufficient scale of operation, it could be a pretty reliable mechanism probabilistically speaking.
Now they can start growing in a landfill somewhere.
Very curious what are those characters. If you could kindly post a picture of the package, I can help translate what's written on it.
For a good counter to all the "invasive biology" craze see:
https://www.amazon.com/Invasion-Biology-Pseudoscience-David-...
He raises many good points. Much damage to the eocology has been done in removing "invasive" species.
Now, diseses, those can really devestate. I'd love to still have our (US) chestnut forests.
Make of that what you will.
https://www.publish.csiro.au/pc/pdf/PC040070
He does seem to take an extreme position, but it is sometimes beneficial to take in an extreme counterpoint in order to find the reasonable "middle" ground.
Also I can’t imagine getting a box of seeds in the mail (unsolicited) and thinking to myself, “I should plant these and see what comes up!”
Edit, found more about this here: https://www.wusa9.com/mobile/article/news/local/virginia/vir...
Along with a story of a Chinese National attempting to transport birds into Virginia which are known to be transmitters of Avian flu.
different strokes for different folks i guess, but that is absolutely something i would do. or would have done if they'd arrived in may, planting in august is kinda pointless where i live.
My seeds arrived about 2 years ago, from China, entirely unannounced, and directed to my address in London, but with no name.
They turned out to be strawberries. Nothing unusual about them as far as I can taste...
They inspired me to make a service for other people to get random gifts from China... [1]
So far, the only gross error I've had was a getting sent hairclippers instead of a Dreamcast controller. Could've used the clippers, but wrong voltage :(
The examples you give like a bike repair kit are not really enticing.
I only need that from spring to summer. My greenhouse isn't setup yet.
From googling there appears to be quite a few, both curated and otherwise, what I saw ranged from $3 per shipment to $15+
Oops!
Keen to try it though.
> A gum can be produced from the bark which reportedly treats edema, while the dried fruits have been used as a diuretic.
You keep it inside and take a picture and you will know if you will get nice flowers, or vegetables, or...nothing. Just leaves.
As a kid I loved to plant seeds in plastic cups and see what grew out of it, and trying additives to see if they could help the plant grow. Once I grew a little tomato, and ate it. I didn't drop dead from tomato consumption.
It's innocent and safe. The government should have no business regulating what people do with seeds.
Your passion for experimentation and cultivation is awesome. I get that you don’t want the government telling you what you can and can’t do. So, instead, what if you look at it as a fellow citizen asking you to please not plant random seeds from China in the ground outside, unattended.
Still, I fail to see the harm of growing the seed inside to identify the plant. People here have reported receiving cucumbers and strawberries. No one has reported receiving vines or anything else.
I am very surprised by the level of fear and paranoia regarding everything and especially China: we are looking at horse gift in the mouth, then saying it is a bioterrorism plot. Unbelievable!! When I was a kid, that would have been the best mail-order present ever!
Also, regarding kudzu and the like, I fail to see the harm. The environment changes. We may not like that, but that's how life is. Instead of trying to undo changes, maybe we should adapt to them.
Kudzu seems good for livestock, rich in protein and isoflavones. Trying to burn it seems to be due to a distinct lack of imagination and profit motive. It's a free input!!! Find new ways to chop it down to feed it to livestock. Make it into a food supplement.
Anything looks better than just destruction and nostalgia for the time it wasn't here. It's here now. Adapt!
If I ran things, I’d develop an avena-specific herbicide, and drop it from helicopters every spring.
Replacing it with natives would lower the fire risk substantially, and probably also cool the hills off a bit during the summer.
I feel like that boat has flown, or whatever. It's kind of like saying the government should have no business checking passports or levying an income tax or something.
But I have read about the old time hackers, who yearned freedom and experimentation. It seemed to have been widespread: I have seen movies from the 1980s, and noticed the same thing: people seem less fearful, more open and ready to experiment.
It may sound silly to you, but I was awestruck by "Bill and Ted excellent adventure"!
Even with all the modern technology we have, I wish I had been born 20 or 30 years earlier, when freedom was still a thing and innocent fun was deemed innocent by default.
If you want to smuggle bird flu into USA, are you really going to do it in a bag of whole dead birds, and not some processed form that is more convenient and less suspicious?
Authorities get really uptight about invasive species and whatnot. Maybe groundless talk of biowarfare is "hysteria" but regulating biological materials going across borders is the norm as far as I know.
> Um... China... what’s the deal?
China's a country of over a billion people.
Let's not attribute the actions of individuals to sinister top-down plot from the CCO politboru until there's actual evidence.
This type of behavior is endemic with poverty and can be seen with Nigerian princes, Indian call center scams, or just your friendly San Francisco neighborhood bike thief.
This behavior has more to do with poverty and income inequality than Chinese people (or people of any country or race for that matter).
I seriously doubt that. It's a police state, but let's not exaggerate, eh?
The other common name ("water caltrop") is illuminating.
https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional/kudzu-entanglement-...
Is that just because of the fear you might spread an invasive species, or is there some other risk trying to grow an unknown plant entails?
In most cases they send hairpins and such stuff, but in this case it happened to be seeds.
If the government response is so heavy handed on this stupid issue (sellers trying to trick the platform), imagine how silly other investigations could be.
Friends in the UK are reporting it happening there, and are being advised to either burn or boil seeds for several minutes.
Anyone know what this is about, what the actual purpose is?
You would also be able to target what you might want to happen and where.
Random individuals would seem sort of silly to target unless it spread dramatically or was something else.
Just doesn't make a lot of sense as a sort of intentional invasive species thing.
I hope she doesn't join a radical militant outfit when she grows up.
Seeds are a bitch, too. It's usually hard to hide anything in them, isn't it? That's one of the reasons plants make them, they're less vulnerable to infections etc.
"Invasive!" is a boogey man, here. So many things are invasive, especially now. Ask, instead, "could i buy this seed somewhere else grow it legally?" I expect the answer might well be "yes".
[VA] https://www.wdbj7.com/2020/07/24/got-seeds-you-didnt-ask-for...
[WA] https://www.facebook.com/WAStateDeptAg/photos/a.101510256200...
Indeed.
This seems the obvious Occam razor Earring seller orders/sends fake earring packages and posts fake reviews.
With the trade war and espionage stuff heating up the cold war with China, one wonders if the Chinese Communist Party crack down on this to try to defend China's reputation and conserve their political capital for more substantial attacks on US, or encourage it to antagonize US into war?
What happens if US Customs cracks down on Chinese import fraud and drives up the cost of importing product? I always thought that cracking down on illegal-in-US behaviors like pollution and worker mistreatment would be a more morally defensible and socio-economically beneficial trade battle than arbitrary and capricious tariffs.
“The government of Virginia wishes to clarify there is no such thing as magic beans...”
I wish they'd went with a Glomar Response[0]. "The government of Virginia can neither confirm nor deny the existence of magic beans."
My favorite form of this tactic was from The Three Body Problem, where alien invaders make use of remote sabotage to pit nations against one another, in an attempt to weaken human society.
If you ever want to invade Mars, first go to amazon.mars and order a bunch of seeds from one country/mons to be delivered to another. You’ll start a diplomatic incident — a war, hopefully — and crush the ecological system at the same time, leaving you a nice weak planet to invade and terraform at your leisure.
It’s neither original or unusual. Two recent examples are Putin pitting Americans against each other to weaken the US, or supporting Brexit to weaken the EU.
divide et impera
διαίρει καὶ βασίλευε
How close is 隔岸觀火?
No doubt if I spoke egyptian or sumerian I'd know earlier examples.
Weird.
https://www.npr.org/2020/02/10/804501991/chinese-hackers-cha...
Some possibly biased but interesting references on Chinese government efforts in this area.
1. We have no idea what kind of seeds they are, and they could be invasive.
2. The packages originate from China.
The juxtapoisition of the fact that they could be invasive and that the packages originate from China make it sound like a Chinese plot.
They never actually connect those dots, though.
https://www.npr.org/2019/09/10/759053717/critics-of-relocati...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_California_medfly_attac...
https://www.fox13now.com/news/local-news/utah-department-of-...
I’m not sure what my wife did with them but we certainly didn’t plant them.