Ontario woman receives package of 1,020 condoms she says she never ordered

Sept. 15 (UPI) -- An Ontario woman said a box containing 1,020 condoms she never ordered arrived at her home -- and she was charged nearly $500 for them.

Joelle Angleheart, of Chapleau, said she received an email from Amazon about an forthcoming delivery, but she assumed it was fake because she and her husband hadn't ordered any condoms.

"We automatically assumed the email was a scam because it was not something we would purchase," Angleheart told CTV News.

She said the box arrived while her husband was in the hospital recovering from an illness.

"We received this box that contained 30 boxes of condoms that had 34 in each package, and we had no idea why they were sent to us," she said. "We really can't understand what took place and why we received the package at our house."

Angleheart said she was even more confused to discover her credit card had been charged $495 for the order.

Cyber experts said the delivery resembles a brushing scam, which involves Amazon sellers sending packages to random addresses so they can artificially inflate their number of positive reviews.

Cindy Smith, of Prince William County, Va., received more than 100 Amazon packages she had never ordered at her home earlier this year.

Amazon investigated and discovered the vendor was having packages shipped to random addresses to remove unsold merchandise from Amazon fulfillment centers.

Claudiu Popa, CEO of Datarisk Canada, said Angleheart's situation might have resulted from her account being hacked, since she was charged for the package.

Angleheart said Amazon initially refused to refund her due to the condoms being labeled as an unreturnable item, but an Amazon representative said a credit has been given to the customer's card.

"As we continue to investigate this matter, Amazon secured the customer's account and their money has been returned," the representative said.