The Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) is one of several student unions throughout the province that has been receiving mystery packages from Amazon. The packages, which started showing up to the CCSS in late October, contain seemingly random items, including, to name just a few examples, small technological gadgets, sewing needles, and sex toys. And no one’s quite sure who’s sending them.
“I order things for the society all the time and I order things from Amazon. The student society orders weird things sometimes,” says CCSS clubs and events coordinator Tagg Kelt. “Like, I bought 30 umbrellas, so we got an order for 30 umbrellas, and someone was like, ‘Did someone order 30 umbrellas?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, that was me.’ [But the mystery packages are] addressed to the ‘students’ union,’ but we don’t call ourselves that. Doesn’t say anything about Camosun. It’s got the shipping address for the college which isn’t really openly published; most things we order to the address of the college, not the shipping address.”
Kelt explains that the packages slowed down around Christmas, but have picked back up in the last few weeks. The day Nexus talked to Kelt for this story the CCSS had already received five packages by 2 pm (the last was a single cat tag). Kelt says the CCSS isn’t particularly concerned about any safety aspect of the mystery packages, but he says that they aren’t sure what to do with the items that aren’t useful.
“Our bookkeeper was worried that we were gonna be financially on the hook for this stuff, like it was gonna come with a bill later, but Amazon doesn’t work that way, as far as I know. You have to pay money for them to ship you things,” says Kelt. “The downside is that we can’t return any of it. To initiate a return with Amazon you have to go in the account that initiated the order and create a return; that’s the only way.”
Nexus contacted Amazon but was unable to talk to anyone who was aware of the situation. Kelt had a similar issue when he first began receiving the packages.
“I talked to a customer service rep,” he says, “and they were like, ‘Yeah, hold onto it, we don’t know who sent it to you.’ They had me read off a tracking [number] from the box, and they were like, ‘Yup, you received it,’ and I was like, ‘I’m aware.’ Apparently, once it’s left, they don’t really have a way of telling who it’s from.”
Vancouver Island University Students’ Union (VIUSU) in Nanaimo is one of the other student societies getting packages. They too contacted Amazon but have not had any more luck in determining the cause of the mystery packages.
“We used to call Amazon every time we received something, and there was an ongoing investigation,” says VIUSU organiser of campus life Jessica Sandy. “They were pretty perplexed by the whole thing. As far as they could tell, it was individuals opening up a new account with nonsense email and names and paying for these things with gift cards. They were all from third-party Amazon sellers, so they couldn’t really look as much into it.”
The VIUSU has received yoga mats, headphones, a men’s sex toy, and about 100 other items, and while they’ve used a few things—like a Bluetooth speaker—they aren’t thrilled about the deliveries. Sandy says they have concerns over the waste of the packaging, especially considering some packages only contain a single, small item.
“The only way they said that we could stop it was to block all the deliveries from Amazon to our office. They said that there’s an investigation right now, that it’s not just student unions, all kinds of organizations and businesses all over Canada have had this happen,” says Sandy. “I think once we realized it seems to be a really random selection of organizations that aren’t connected, it’s just been rather funny—‘What are we going to get today?’ Everyone opens the package and laughs. I don’t feel like it’s being done for any ill reason. I just can’t see why.”
One theory that has some cybersecurity experts concerned about packages that show up to someone who hasn’t ordered them (Amazon packages in particular are showing up to organizations and individuals across North America) is that they’re a way to test stolen credit cards before making bigger purchases, or that the thief in question is buying small items to see patterns in regard to when the items get picked up. If they see that one is delivered then sits outside a house for a day, they could potentially order a large item then go grab it.
But Kelt feels that the cause of the mystery packages is one of mismanagement, not malice.
“My personal conspiracy theory is that it’s a really bad marketing company,” says Kelt. “They’ve gotten too ahead of themselves, and the guy who’s sending out the products hasn’t gotten in touch with the person who’s supposed to get in touch with the student society and be like, ‘Hey, we’d like to offer these products to students, here are some of the products.’ That’s what it feels like to me—we just haven’t gotten the thank-you note yet.”