Mystery seeds from China

My dd ordered a dinner set that was apparently from China.

She got a piece of costume jewelry instead! (no seeds as yet)

Found the link on facebook.

Some strange goings on lately.

DH had a reply from DEFRA saying they will get back to him with an address to forward the seeds to.

A prompt reply!

I think you’re right, lemongrove, but, of course, because they come from China...........

This is about online commerce, am not sure how they get mailing addresses, but it won’t be difficult ( people sell them.)
It’s about sending very low price goods to an address, seeds, hairclips etc and they can then say you are one of their customers.I should imagine the seeds are veggy in origin and cheap to send.As you can imagine, most of these low level scams are from China, the biggest producers of goods on the planet.

It’s a waiting game then to see what replies we receive from either agency Daddima

Day of the Triffids crossed my mind too. ?

My thought exactly Furret?

I’ve emailed A.P.H.A ( Animal and Plant Health Agency) as advised in one of the articles, so we’ll see what they say.

Triffids!

Mine came through the post via Amazon ( I think) listed on the customs form as costume jewellery. The problem was I had ordered seeds online so was a bit confused. The seeds I had ordered came from Just Seeds and are uk produced. I still have the dodgy ones, unopened, and I think I may send them to DEFRA rather than just chuck them in the bin

apparently it is some kind of scam, to do with getting good reviews.
i heard it explained on the radio, but didn;t understand it, neither did the presenter, and despite further explanation it was still baffling.
something to do with e-commerce, being or pretending to be a supplier, in order to garner some reaction/reviews and use that for some advantageous commercial purpose.
of course they may also be toxic. don't touch or open.

There needs to be a public safety announcement on TV at regular intervals warning people of the potential dangers of these seeds, and giving advice on what to do with them if they receive any. I quite possibly wouldn't have known about them if this hadn't been posted here. Thanks for alerting us to them Daddima

Thanks Kalu - DEFRA has to be aware and find out whats what.

Oh I d be too curious to throw away but yes I would notify defra

DH has sent the photo to DEFRA and he is happy to send them on if that is what is required should they need safely disposed of.

Apparently they were an assortment of seeds from different innocuous plants such as beans. However, you don’t know if they have been coated with some dangerous substance or they could be genetically modified. Best thing is to burn them provided they don’t explode. Or better still contact Defra as biba70 suggests.
Whatever you do don’t open the packet and definitely don’t plant them.

don't burn them - speak to DEFRA asap and send them to them- it is hugely important that they know this is happening, analyse what they are and where they come from - AND STOP IT.

burn them .!!! dont just throw away.... who knows what animal/ or ??? could eat them .or where they would end up.

DH received this small package of seeds this morning describing the contents as Garden decorative beans!Although the postal address is China, the return address is a sorting office PO Box in Kyrgyzstan. Hmm.

In Japan everyone gets seeds delivered to them from the Post Office on their birthday. When I asked my friend how on earth do they know everyone's birthday she said that had never occurred to her.
Just realised that info is from almost 40 years ago so may no longer apply. ?

Definitely don’t plant them ! Planting them might introduce another vicious and noxious plant like Japanese Knotweed

The mystery to me would be people opening them or trying to plant them.
Straight to the police would be my way of dealing with them.