Seed packets have been mailed to dozens of Americans from China
Residents in at least six US states received unsolicited seed packages labeled as jewelry from China. Agriculture officials have urged people to not plant the seeds or open the bags.

Read in Daily Mail: https://apple.news/AWm-YdzgASf...

Nobody ever sends me free stuff.

I remember a few years ago I took part in a scheme by an association of gardening enthusiasts to grow exotic botanical camellias such as C. chiangii from China. The association got thousands of seeds from China, supposedly from a botanical garden run by a university, and each one of us got some plus instructions on how to prepare the growing medium, how to facilitate germination and care for the seedlings. I got 50 seeds of a yellow one, I don't remember if it was C. petelotii or C. nitidissima and a single seed sprouted, the seedling got about 2" tall, stuck there for two months and then died.
Too ashamed for what I felt was my botanical incompetence I decided to keep quiet about the whole event until one day I got a phone call from the association president. He was literally fuming: he had sown 500 seeds himself and got about 100 seedlings. Of these 50 were C. sinensis, aka tea plants, and the remaining 50 "God only knows what". Surely not the rare and exotic species he had hoped for.

I shared this on facebook too. You really have to be careful about planting unknown seeds from unknown sources! I know of many cases where people bought, supposedly, rose seeds on ebay and got who knows what for their money. But strange unsolicited seeds out of the blue? Into the trash!

I'm going to take a shot at what's up.

The Chinese have any number of schemes to inflate transaction numbers and reviews on eBay and Amazon, because reviews and seller ratings are all-important. If you're selling on eBay and you're prepared to do unethical and illegal things to boost reputation, you get in touch with a dark organization that collects eBay user data and uses it to make phantom purchases. You ask me to use my organization to jazz your sales. I have a bunch of unlawfully obtained eBay user ID's and passwords. I use those to buy your products, notifying you of which purchases are fake, so you don't ship real product. Instead, you ship something else. I use my stolen ID's to post reviews.

Odd seeds work, if you just need something in the envelope. I suspect most of them will turn out to be agricultural seed than can keep around in large quantity for next to nothing. I've seen at least four different seeds pictured. One of them is recognizably black rice. Another looks like black millet.

Why ship anything at all? Because eBay counts how many of your shipments provide tracking numbers that work within their system. It goes toward your Top Rated Seller designation. The same applies to Amazon. China Post is very, very cheap, so cheap that some legitimate Chinese sellers can sell a product and ship it, all for one dollar or not much more.

If you pick ID's of people who rarely buy anything, you can change their email address so they aren't alerted and cancel their account and use it until it's discovered. There won't much of a hue and cry, because no one is defrauding the account holder. A relatively inactive eBay or Amazon account is more valuable than an active one. You can buy any kind of tailored list on the Dark Web.

CrawGARDED, EOPOLODIABLO,

Today's local news on NBC stated that the state of Washington Invasive Species Council recommends DO NOT PLANT THE SEEDS, PLACE THEM IN ANOTHER SEALED BAG AND PLACE THEM IN THE TRASH, AND IF YOU ALREADY PLANTED THEM, DIG THEM UP AND PUT THEM IN THE TRASH. They may be an INVASIVE PLANT.
The broadcast indicated that this is a wide-spread event.

They want us to send them to an local agency

https://minnesota.cbslocal.com...

Wow what's next for 2020?

What's next for 2020? I shudder to think.

Here's another news article that might supplement or update those already shared here:
https://www.twincities.com/202...

Stay safe,
Virginia

I think @InTheHotofTexas is right: this is some sort of e-commerce scam.
Last week I got an email from eBay (which their customer service confirmed as genuine) to the tune "we believe your account information may have been obtained by a third party without your consent". Well, how did those shifty crackers do that? I have pretty good security here, I never access eBay from the phone and my eBay account info are written on a sheet of paper next to my home PC, so unless somebody sneaked in here and took a picture I'd dare say eBay got cracked. Again.

Agri-grade seeds like rice or millet cost next to nothing on a weight basis, especially if they are non-patented cultivars, the kind we may buy in big 2-3 bushels bags in any agri co-op. I wouldn't be too surprised if this is one of those multi-level scams where even the seeds have been obtained in some shady way. Fell off the back of a lorry.

I also honestly believe the media are causing more harm than good, as is their usual. Just tell people to dispose of the seeds properly or hand them over to the USDA for testing and be done with it. No need to push scared people even more over the edge for the sake of a few extra clicks.

Georgia appears to be on the list now.

https://www.fox5atlanta.com/ne...

I swear some people have nothing better to do.

Hamwild said:Georgia appears to be on the list now.

https://www.fox5atlanta.com/ne...

I swear some people have nothing better to do.

You mean like the PRC diplomats who said, with a straight face, these packages have been "forged" and didn't originate from China but from "parts unknown"?

There have also been a spate of people who have ordered seeds for aroids (never a good idea....Aroid 'seeds' are usually completely non-viable once the berry stage has passed. They have been ordering these seeds off of eBay. From Asia. Some have shown photos of what they received...they look like coffee beans, but could be something more malevolent. DON'T ORDER SEEDS FROM ASIA. AT the very least you will get ripped off, at the very worst they could be harmful

Saw on the news this morn, Wisconsin is asking any state recipients to reach out to the DATCP who is working w the USDA as they don't want a new spawn of invasive species. The link for anyone from WI only is below. Maybe other states have set up something similar.

What else do we need to watch for in this rough year?!

https://datcp.wi.gov/Pages/New...

This is what I read:

"Report mysterious seeds to the USDA through the anti-smuggling hotline number 1-800-877-3835 or by sending an email to [email protected]. USDA will make every attempt to protect the confidentiality of any information sources during an investigation within the extent of the law."

Hamwild said:This is what I read:

"Report mysterious seeds to the USDA through the anti-smuggling hotline number 1-800-877-3835 or by sending an email to [email protected]. USDA will make every attempt to protect the confidentiality of any information sources during an investigation within the extent of the law."

This reminds me of an issue who popped up on another forum about the difficulties of obtaining specific tools to work on Walbro carburettors on grounds they could be used to "tamper with emission settings". As another chap commented "Folks are bringing here unlicensed, non-EPA compliant Walbro clones by the pallet load to sell on Amazon and eBay but God forbid we can buy a feeler gauge or a mixture screw adjuster".
The problem was solved about one year later when eBay sellers from China started selling clones of Tillotson/TK/Walbro/Zama tools.

To be honest I have bought seeds and rhizomes from Asia. The Huang Jin Lu was a dud, but that peony is nothing short of a nightmare wherever it comes from. The Qi Hua Lu Shang is still growing very nicely in my garden: it's the original article behind all two-colored peonies and a very resistant plant. The vegetable seeds from Japan have not been exactly a success, but that has more to do with my finding mizuna nigh on inedible than with the seeds themselves.

I know several people who have been scammed from Asia buying seeds supposedly for variegated Monstera. Of course it was PART their bad, because as a rule, variegated Monstera seeds do not produce variegated plants.

Received the unauthorized small grey plastic envelope in the mail yesterday. 5"x5" in size with a small cellophane envelope inside with seeds. I thru it away. Was prepared for the scam due to all the attention on this site. That was all there was to it . I hope that's all , no more surprises in the future.

You should have forwarded it to the USDA in your state for testing

Could of done that too. Not every decision is always the approval of everyone. It was my decision and is what I read in oregon news . The staff is short and they are overwhelmed with seeds. They all looked the same as posted on the news sight.

bumplbea said:Received the unauthorized small grey plastic envelope in the mail yesterday. 5"x5" in size with a small cellophane envelope inside with seeds. I thru it away. Was prepared for the scam due to all the attention on this site. That was all there was to it . I hope that's all , no more surprises in the future.

Bea, just curious have you ever ordered any seeds from China? Curious where they would have gotten your name. Thx