US-China Relations

At first I thought this story was fake, but then a friend of mine in Sterling, VA, reported receiving these "mystery seeds" from Amazon that she never ordered.

Link to local TV coverage:  NBC Washington-Do Not Plant Those Seeds

I saw a few pictures, they look to me like Kudzu seeds.

Link to pic of kudzus seeds:  https://images.app.goo.gl/FwJQzbADK1gFagaW8

Even if it's not kudzu, it may be some other invasive weed. People are being advised NOT to plant them. Kudzu is awful. I have driven through parts of the South, from Virginia to Arkansas, that are covered in kudzu. It strangles basically every other plant and is more difficult to eradicate than invasive bamboos. It was introduced to the US on purpose several times since the late 1800s, as an exotic ornamental and even as erosion prevention, and like many things plant and animal introduced at the turn of the last century, it has ruined the native environment wherever it grows.

Link to Wiki about kudzu:  Kudzu in the US is Still a Problem

Remember, my hubby has those high level DoD and intelligence contacts. This is being viewed as a form of agricultural warfare, regardless of whether it is kudzu or something else.

@laura-f WOW! Thanks for letting us know! I thought it was another Facebook hoax thing. Living in the South - have battled Kudzu (On a hot summer night you can see it growing) Chinese Privet (It will take over everything!!!) honeysuckle ( it can pull down houses and fences too!!! tho smelling so sweet while it does!!!) We have many invasives here..sadly ..some nurseries STILL sell them!!! My neighbors planted bamboo and it has tried to eat my property also... luckily for me? My goats LOVE all of the above and gladly eat it all. I cut it from places where they can not go (like my not fenced front yard LOL ) and they nosh it happily up.  I AM waiting for an order of seeds for my Fall garden (that I ordered online from Burpees) so if I get any packets of seeds that are other than my order I will definitely NOT plant them!

I did read that it could be a possible seller scam that's common with sellers out of China. It's called "Fake Listing Scam". U.S. News & World Report, via Snopes, gives a better explanation of it:

[T]here have been some cases of criminals buying their own products and shipping it to a real address. The con artist then writes a fake review, purportedly from the buyer the product was shipped to. Why does the thief go to the trouble? To make it look like a “verified” review, since the review came from a “buyer” who bought the product.

“Amazon is continuously developing algorithms to automatically detect these merchants, but it also relies on consumer awareness,” [Kevin Lancaster, CEO of ID Agent] says. And what really can throw people off is that sometimes these con artists build up a couple months of legitimate sales, making a con artist’s products appear reputable, Lancaster says. “People buy from the fake listings, and instead of receiving a product in a few weeks, the scammer has already made off with the money,” he explains.

While that sounds the most plausible to me, Snopes does point out that the true motive is still unknown.

@carmen

I am aware of this scam, however it's usually for popular and/or expensive items.

My friend got seeds that she didn't pay for at all, they weren't sent in place of something else.

@laura-f

Thanks for the heads up!  Who knew?!