Has anyone ever had this happen to them?
Someone who’s name I never heard of sent me a book as a gift. The book is about 200 pages, but the content could have easily fit in 100 pages or less. Also, page 3 says “printed in the USA”, but the last page says “printed in Germany by Amazon distribution”. The text is very generic self help stuff. My conclusion is this book was probably written by AI, and someone is sending out copies to get it to the best seller list. Holding the book doesn’t justify the current price of € 46, and leafing through it doesn’t give me the impression that it’s dense in information, it looks to be just generic stuff.
I guess some Amazon sellers sometimes send out free stuff randomly with the intent to use the shipment to generate a fake review, or to lower their ratio of returned items. They call it “brushing”.
Seems a bit silly to me: if someone is in a position to post fake Amazon reviews in your name, shouldn’t they be able to do a lot more damage? But, I suppose you would report a fraudulent order right away, but might not even notice a fraudulent review
Amazon allows people to report those now. If you go to the support tab, theres a section on getting “free” stuff randomly from Amazon stores like what you are describing.
Found it, but the reporting page specifically mentions it should be sent by a store, and not be a gift. To be clear, someone named “Latwan Estrella” sent me the book as a gift about three weeks ago (I googled that name, no hits). I reported that I recieved a package I didn’t order to Amazon, but never heard back from them, they were supposed to respond within 10 days. So this morning I decided to open the package, and inside was this book with a note saying I recieved it as a gift.
A couple of questions:
- Is
Latwan Estrellaan anagram of your name? - Is this somehow a message from your future self?
LOL, most definitely not on both questions. Also, if I wanted a self help book on this topic I could find something better.
But what if this was the book your future self received in their past.
They would have, since I recieved it. The problem is, I leafed through the book, and it seems to be very generic. So if future me sent it, it wouldn’t be for the content. Maybe it has just the right thickness for a wonky table in my near future?
MAYBE its so generic because your future self encoded it. The self help is generic because its actually cipher text. And only YOU have the key. Maybe the giftee’s name is the key. Hmm.
- Is
Can you post a review even though I assume you won’t be a “verified purchaser”? That’s what I’d try. I’d add the circumstances I received it under and include photos of the oddities you noted.
I did just that, minus the photos.
The main reason I mentioned the photos is because it adds authenticity if you can show you actually have the book (in lieu of being a “verified purchaser”)
Thanks, I’ll see if I can update it.
Edit: either the review needs to be approved first, or it’s not getting placed for some reason. It’s not in my profile, I’ll come back to it later.
Why aren’t you telling us the Amazon link to the book?
I didn’t want to give them the extra traffic. But it’s this one.
And it was addressed to your name? Do you do any self publishing yourself with Amazon?
No, it was adressed to “Latwan Estrella” with my adress on the package. I don’t do self publishing, I like reading books but writing is not for me.
Hmm. Perhaps a previous resident in your location. Maybe a fat finger address.
At least it wasn’t directly do you… that would be super creepy.
Fat finger adress, maybe but highly unlikely due to the uncommon name. Previous resident definitely not. I’ve lived here since 2000, and Amazon has only been operating in my country since 2014.
