Sketchy seeds from China in the mail finally explained

• Mysterious seeds from China have been shipped to Americans in all 50 states, an investigation discovered.
• The recipients got various types of seeds, some of them being harmless, common seeds that one might plant in their garden. Others were harmful to the soil.
• The mystery appears to have been a vast scam targeting people whose online accounts have been compromised.

The novel coronavirus pandemic was undoubtedly the biggest and scariest situation of , but it&#;s hardly the strangest thing that happened last year. There were plenty of odd occurrences in a year that many will remember for a long time. Thousands of Americans received unsolicited seed packages containing mysterious Chinese seeds last year.

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We&#;ve seen plenty of reports on the matter since . People detailed their experiences with unexpected deliveries. It turns out the mystery was bigger than anyone thought. But the USDA gave a simple explanation for it. China didn&#;t conduct some sort of carefully orchestrated agricultural scam against the US with the help of nefarious seeds, as some might&#;ve believed. But it was still a scam nonetheless.

Mysterious seeds from China explained

An incredibly detailed report from Motherboard shows that thousands of Americans from all 50 states received such packages over the summer, with various agencies investigating the matter. USDA warned the public not to plant the seeds or ingest them.

Aside from the USDA&#;s Smuggling Interdiction and Trade Compliance group (SITC), the FBI and the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) started investigations of their own. Some of the seed recipients planted them. Others went ahead and ate them.

&#;I planted them in my hydroponic system in my home, I thought they were the strawberry seeds I ordered from Amazon. They turned Black and green mold, so I threw them away,&#; one person from Michigan wrote.

&#;I&#;ve been battling this for a couple weeks. Now, where I planted them, and I remember where I planted them, everything that&#;s in the garden where I planted them are having a hard time and are starting to die,&#; said a woman from New Mexico in a voice mail. She planted the seeds after thinking she was supposed to have received them.

Are these dangerous?

While these stories might be scary, they seemed to back up conspiracy theories saying that China is conducting some sort of attack. But authorities that investigated the matter discovered that some of the seeds aren&#;t harmful. It&#;s not just one species either, but plenty of known plants, including &#;rose, amaranth (not Palmer), 2 mints, False Horse Balm, Self Heal, Lespedeza and Sweet Potato,&#; according to a lab in Utah. New Mexico identified onion, cucumber, tomato, radish, peppergrass, alfalfa, corn, lettuce, hollyhock, and spearmint seeds.

A different person discovered they got seeds for oregano and consumed the resulting crop.

Other seeds are &#;noxious weeds&#; that already exist in the US. But people are banned from planting them, according to analysis from New Mexico. Local news departments reported on this throughout the past year.

What&#;s a brushing campaign and why did they mail seeds?

While authorities had no idea what was going on in the first weeks of shipments, they eventually got some answers. The USDA found that they were a part of a brushing campaign and not actually meant to cause harm. Whether or not they did cause harm is a larger issue. Motherboard explains:

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Eventually, the official line became that this was a &#;brushing&#; campaign, in which items of small value are sent to people whose online accounts have been compromised, or are sent to people as a &#;gift.&#; In order to leave a positive review from a &#;verified buyer&#; (which is weighted higher because the person nominally bought and used the product), you need to have actually bought or received an item, so by receiving seeds, reviews from that account or name will be weighted higher.

It&#;s still unclear who is behind the scam, and what the full purpose was. But the investigation by the USDA closed earlier this year. There haven&#;t been many reports of mysterious seeds from China since then. If you&#;ve received seeds in the mail, chances are they are ones that you ordered.

This didn&#;t just happen in the US

As reported in July of this year, The Atlantic had a deep dive into this scam. There were also seeds sent to the UK, actually before the US.

On the morning of June 5, a woman named Sue Westerdale, who lives in a small town in northern England, posted in the Facebook group &#;Veg gardening UK&#; about something peculiar. She had received a mysterious packet of seeds from China, described on the envelope as &#;ear studs,&#; and wondered whether this had happened to anyone else.

Reporting found that Facebook groups were a premiere way that people shared that they received these seeds. That spread to the US too. Groups such as the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry&#;s Facebook page or the aforementioned &#;Veg gardening UK&#; were flooded with messages. Not to mention unclaimed packages overall.

Coronavirus concerns for the seeds from China

The fact that this occurred amidst a global pandemic heightened the apprehension. People were worried that there were targeted biological attacks on the world. Nobody can blame them either. After thorough investigations though, it seems as though the timing is more to do with the compromised Amazon accounts, rather than a pointed attack.

Hopefully, this is the last we are all hearing of this for a while. But it is possible that this could keep happening.

Previous examples of brushing scams

Forbes

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dove into this subject back in . The article discussed Chinese packages showing up in Pennsylvania clearly addressed to people who lived at the homes. Hair ties were the subject of the story then. But the author noted that the new landscape of cross-border shipping opens up plenty of avenues for scams.

In a world where goods can virtually be sent anywhere more or less freely, borders have become major loopholes for criminals to violate the laws of whatever country they are shipping goods to. For the most part, if the seller of a product is on the other side of an international line than the buyer then no rules, regulations, or laws apply; IP, consumer safety, and postal laws become moot, as the country where the offense originates is beyond the legal reach of the parties seeking retribution. Cross-border e-commerce has become the new &#;Wild West,&#; a place where anything goes &#; even sending random women on the other side of the world piles of unwanted hair ties.

What to do if you get a package?

As if we have seen, this is something that happens more often than we realize. In fact, Amazon users are already being warned for this year. The possibility that they could be receiving unwanted packages this holiday season is high. If you happen to receive something in the mail that you did not order, you should report it to the distributor. For seeds, contacting local law enforcement is a good step to take as well. Do not plant them. You should report it to the distributor and if it&#;s anything that looks suspicious, contact local law enforcement.

You don&#;t want your identity to be stolen, so you need to be vigilant when you receive something you haven&#;t ordered. Also, similar to a suspicious you may get, don&#;t give away any of your contact information. This absolutely includes your social security number, number, credit card number, and more. Stay safe out there.

In late July, America was briefly enthralled with &#; Unsolicited Seeds from China ,&#; which started showing up in mailboxes in all 50 states. These mystery seeds prompted warnings from the USDA, which said people should not plant them, and should instead alert their state agricultural authority and mail them to the USDA or their local officials.

"About a month ago, I did receive seeds from China. I guess China because it looks like Chinese writing. I thought, 'Oh cool, maybe Burgess seeds or one of the seed companies sent me some seeds.' And, umm, like a dumbass, I planted them, not knowing there was a problem," a woman in New Mexico said in a voicemail left with the state's department of agriculture in late July. "And now, I've been battling this for a couple weeks. Now, where I planted them, and I remember where I planted them, everything that's in the garden where I planted them are having a hard time and are starting to die &#; I really don't know what to do at this point, so could somebody call me back and give me a little bit of direction about this? I know I'm a dumbass."

Based on documents I&#;ve read, the scale of the mystery seed operation was much larger than I had originally suspected and than was originally reported. Conservatively, it is safe to say that tens of thousands of Americans received what they perceived to be Chinese mystery seeds in July. Some states, like North Carolina, had more than 1,000 people contact the department of agriculture having received unsolicited seeds. Others, like New Mexico, had roughly 100 recorded seed receivers. Many of these seed receivers, regardless of location, panicked.

Since the seed story originally broke, I have been obsessed with learning more. To do this, I filed 52 freedom of information requests; one with each of the departments of agriculture (or their state-level equivalent) in all 50 states plus Washington DC and Puerto Rico. I also filed requests with the USDA and several of its labs. Thousands of pages of emails, spreadsheets, reports, and documents, as well as audio voicemail recordings, have been trickling in for the last month, and they have been enlightening in many ways.

According to documents obtained by Motherboard from state departments of agriculture, at least hundreds, perhaps thousands of Americans planted the seeds.

According to a spreadsheet compiled by Michigan, 677 people filed official complaints with the state about the receipt of unsolicited seeds; 30 reported planting them. &#;I planted them in my hydroponic system in my home, I thought they were the strawberry seeds I ordered from Amazon. They turned Black and green mold, so I threw them away,&#; one person wrote. &#;If I had known these seeds were going to originate from China, I would not have purchased them from Amazon. I am still waiting on at least 4 other orders of seeds. Will burn them if they come.&#;

&#;People were planting them and have planted them,&#; Jennifer Holton, a spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, told Motherboard in a call. &#;Our plant person was not able to keep up with the calls.&#;

&#;Our call center was completely overwhelmed with calls,&#; Brad Deacon, director of the office of legal affairs for Michigan&#;s Department of Agriculture, said. &#;There were 5-600 Facebook posts, direct messages &#;&#;

In the initial days of this mystery, the agricultural departments of many states were overwhelmed with emails and calls from residents who were unsure of what they&#;d gotten in the mail and what they should do with the seeds.

&#;Yes,&#; David Stebbings, an officer with the SITC, emailed when alerted by authorities in New Hampshire about the seeds, &#;it&#;s starting to explode.&#;

Calls like this were not unusual. Some people ate the seeds, according to the documents. Some people called 911. Emergency meetings and calls were held. The USDA&#;s Smuggling Interdiction and Trade Compliance group (SITC), Customs and Border Protection, and the FBI began investigating.

Officials in that state weren't sure what to do: "I need your guidance for this one since they're planted, and spreading?," two state department of agriculture employees wrote to each other.

"I have purchased some seeds from china. I have only planted one. Although with the rain and wind, it spread through the backyard. Which is really wired since it only was 50 pieces. I plsnted the pearls chorophytum. Please come and take a look," a New Mexico resident wrote.

Not all of the seeds were unsolicited. Some people ordered seeds, got what they paid for, planted them, then became concerned when the Chinese mystery seeds articles began popping up.

&#;Received many shipments. Planted some and clover came up,&#; one report says. &#;She indicated that she planted the bulbs,&#; another states. &#;Planted one pack and ate the oregano that grew. Has some left,&#; says yet another. One seed recipient noted that they &#;salted ground&#; after planting some of their seed packet.

A spreadsheet of plant receivers compiled by North Carolina shows that in that state alone, nearly 1,300 people reported getting the seeds. About 60 of those people planted them.

&#;I received this package from China. Unfortunately I through the envelope away. It said they were stud earrings. I had ordered onions from amazon and thought they got them from China. The more I looked at them they don&#;t even come close to onions I just figured they sent the wrong thing. No I didn&#;t plant or open the package. What should I do with them,&#; a resident wrote in an .