Why does this scare me?

[MyOtherCarIsAPorsche]

I've just had five grey plastic packages, flat like envelopes, delivered. All similar size - about seven inches square. They all contain a couple of pages torn from catalogues, books, magazines - like someone's waste paper.

whats going on?

Check your credit and bank statements- has any money been spent inexplicably?

Because it is fecking weird!

Your weird scale must be Extremely Weird indeed.

My full name - first name and last name is on the label, bar code, warehouse name, sent 2025-09-24.

usually when I'm expecting stuff from Evri I get several notifications over a couple of days for tracking - nothing at all this time.

there's a Lidl leaflet for power tools, wickes brochure/torn catalogue pages, Sunday times supplement pages, Living magazine pages - nothing written on them.

weird

Yes it's a bit weird but it's not scary or enough to make me feel sick. Ask your neighbours if they've had the same?

That’s really weird unpleasant and I’m not surprised you feel scared. I hate stuff like this. I got a very over the top, gushy Christmas card years ago, signed “all my love, Sam”, I don’t know anyone called Sam. It really put the wind up me.

Very unsettling, and confusing.

On Reddit the go to is a suggestion to check your carbon monoxide detectors as famously one guy was writing notes to himself in a state of toxic confusion, so sceptics would question if you'd sent them to yourself without realising, although not being familiar with Evri except as a recipient I don't know how feasible it would be.

Otherwise it's a prank, and not a particularly funny one IMO, or someone who knows you isn't quite well....

I hope you get to the bottom of it and it's nothing sinister x

Very unsettling, and confusing.

On Reddit the go to is a suggestion to check your carbon monoxide detectors as famously one guy was writing notes to himself in a state of toxic confusion, so sceptics would question if you'd sent them to yourself without realising, although not being familiar with Evri except as a recipient I don't know how feasible it would be.

Otherwise it's a prank, and not a particularly funny one IMO, or someone who knows you isn't quite well....

I hope you get to the bottom of it and it's nothing sinister x

Same, I mean a serial killer could be hiding in your bin but no i dont tend to go from 1 to 100 on the dramatic scale over a bot of paper, bit odd i would bin it and move on

Why does it feel in here uf you are not having a full on crisis over something you are doing something wrong

Have you accidentally dropped those magazine pages as litter, or they’ve blown out of your recycling previously? Could a mad neighbour be ‘punishing’ you for littering?

Are you sure it’s not a Royal Mail spam drop? They come as a bundle of leaflets and sometimes they leave the address lab in the bundle.

Also could it just be a print run gone a bit wrong? Eg pages got caught up in the printer?

Have you ordered items of a similar weight such as a magazine, instruction manual or vintage knitting pattern of a high value and have been sent those instead as part of a scam?

What's a nip screw?

Are each of the Evri tracking numbers legitimate? Would Evri disclose the sender's details? Hope you get to the bottom of it. Would spook me!

I wondered this!

So I've just googled to see what comes up about this. Apparently there is a thing called a "brushing scam". This is where people who sell stuff send properly posted packages to random people. I'm not sure I quite understand the premise behind it (!) but it would seem they can genuinely say they've posted a package to Mrs Jones at 14 Station Rd and then post a fake review online about their product in the name of "Mrs Jones". However, it does seem that the packages usually contain an actual product (such as perfume, chocolates etc) and not just bits of paper.

Do you have someone in your life with dementia or the like? It’s a puzzle for sure.

I also have never heard of nip screw…

Yep agree it’s v. odd. I’d have difficulty making self not thinking about it!
Evri usually send several emails prior to delivery & a ‘how did we do’ after as well. I’d def contact them, & maybe try & find when I last had something delivered via them.

Hope you get it sorted.

Yeah it's a kind of scam. You aren't being scammed though.

They post out random stuff to a random address to get a receipt of postage, then when the buyer tells them it never turned up they have proof of postage etc.

@MyOtherCarIsAPorsche do you have any mentally unwell family / friends?
I had something similar ish a few years ago but it wasn't magazine clippings, it was random clothing items. All of them used. Nothing I would ever buy myself. Turned out it was from a mentally unwell relative, who decided one day to send me a bunch of stuff that "the voices" had told him to send me. He arranged for a EVRI home collection & delivery.
Took me about 5 days to work out.
I didn't enjoy the process. I also didn't know he had my address.
It wasn't a nice time.

But wouldn't the proof of postage be connected to the op's address rather than the actual buyer's address?

Or do you mean the seller is faking that op is the buyer? So the seller can claim for the items that was apparently bought by the op?

Saying that, it must be their first rodeo because it's almost impossible to claim anything from Evri! I had two items go missing selling through eBay and I sent loads of emails, left messages, left bad reviews on trust pilot, no one ever contacted me back.

Surely that would just prove they had sent the item to the wrong address.

We had something similar. My friend (a police officer) said to call both 101 and Action Fraud. Action Fraud were very interested because it’s a common brushing scam, where orders are placed in your name and address in order to verify a fake account to leave false reviews. One thing they told me, do not under any circumstances scan any QR codes, as they can also be fake and lead you to phishing sites.

Has DH or your mother / friend / relative bought you anything like a birthday or anniversary gift voucher or something as a surprise?

The seller can show they posted it from the receipt now if so but youll never get it.

This! I'd assume it was a mistake. Maybe someone uses it for scrapbooking/whatever and it's been delivered to OP by mistake. My first thought sure wouldn't be anthrax 😂

Do they have anything in common? The torn pages?