Mysterious rings mailed to North Carolina woman in plot to steal her information

FUQUAY-VARINA, N.C. (WTVD) -- A Fuquay-Varina woman was sent two mysterious rings in the mail that caught her attention.

The rings appear to be shiny diamond rings. The first ring came in the mail and Melissa Anderson said, "I knew it wasn't real but I felt like it had to get to the right person."

To get it to the right person, Anderson looked at the sender's name and address on the package.

"I thought that Cody Polk sent this to the wrong person, and so I was trying to find Cody Polk on Facebook, and so, I typed in Cody Polk, and then it said Cody Polk ring and I knew right then that there was something going on," Anderson said.

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She quickly learned she wasn't the only one getting this ring, which says moissanite on the packaging, not a diamond. On social media, there are several posts of people saying they got the same ring from what appeared to be the same person. Then not long after getting the first ring, Anderson got the exact same ring in the mail again.

The rings come with a warranty card that has a QR code on it that states you need to scan to register the ring for the warranty.

"It seems so just innocuous like I'll scan the QR code and do my warranty."

According to the United States Postal Inspection Service, this is called a brushing scam where scammers send unsolicited merchandise to people for various reasons.

A sheriff's department in Louisiana issued a warning about this scam, stating their financial crimes detectives investigated it and said the goal is to get you to innocently scan the QR code. Once you do, the scammers will have your information.

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Anderson never scanned the QR code as she says there were too many red flags, like a spelling error.

Troubleshooter Diane Wilson tried to get to the bottom of who was behind mailing the rings, but emails to the company listed came back as undeliverable.

The return address goes to a business strip mall -- with no location for the exact address -- and the name "Cody Polk" appears to just be a random name being used for this scam.

Anderson is sharing her story to make sure others know about this, in case they get a mysterious ring in the mail.

"What worries me the most is people who don't know better, you know, and people who feel like they're doing the right thing of, oh, I got this wonderful ring and I want to be sure that I warrantee it so that I get my, my lifetime limited warranty or whatever and so then they get caught up in this whole deal."

Anderson adds she has no idea why she got the rings.

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Investigators said sometimes it is just random who gets the items in a brushing scam, other times it is when your information is leaked in a data breach. To protect yourself, check your accounts for recent unauthorized charges and change the passwords on your accounts. It is also important to monitor your credit report for errors.

It should also be noted that according to the Federal Trade Commission, you can keep unordered merchandise.