No, Amazon is not giving away unclaimed items for £2

By: Soham Shah
August 2 2023

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Context

A post claiming that Amazon is giving away unclaimed items for a minimal price of £2 has been circulating on Facebook in the United Kingdom. One such post was shared on July 10 with the caption, “Amazon is giving away unclaimed electronics to the British for 2 £.” The post added, “Every year, a large number of undelivered parcels accumulate in our warehouses. Instead of throwing them away, Amazon donates them. One parcel can contain an iPhone, PlayStation, TV, microwave, and many other useful electronics. Enter the delivery address and receive your parcel within 2 days." Archive of a similar post can be accessed here. 

However, this is a scam post making a false claim.

In fact

The photo attached to the post shows multiple a stack of Amazon parcels with a yellow label with an Amazon logo and "£2" seemingly printed onto them. Next to this image there are two shots showing contents of two of the parcels. The packages include games consoles and other expensive electronics. Using a reverse image search on Google, we found the image has been taken from the thumbnail of a video posted on June 2, 2021, by a YouTube channel called Franchise Kicks titled “What's inside an Amazon Mystery Box.” We found that the yellow £2 label seen in the photo in the Facebook post is not present in the original photo and has clearly been edited onto it. 

Multiple comments from different Facebook accounts on the post attempt to validate the legitimacy of the post with purported photos of the packages they had supposedly received, which included AirPods, headphones, mobile phones, and Xbox consoles, along with praise for the deal.

The link included in the post leads to the gaming blog For The Win, a website by USA Today Sports, with no link to Amazon. There is no official Amazon website link attached to the claim.

Such fraudulent links are usually intended to draw out financial or personal details or even introduce malware into the device of an unsuspecting user. A Full Fact report on this scam states that users were redirected to a different website, where they were asked to enter their personal information.

There are no news reports or press releases from Amazon confirming that they are selling unclaimed items for £2. A representative from Amazon PR confirmed to Logically Facts that this is a scam.

Logically Facts has fact-checked similar claims being made by hoax posts, including one which claimed that Aldi was giving away free food boxes worth £35 to users who liked or commented on the post on Facebook.

The verdict

Amazon has confirmed to Logically Facts that this post is a scam. Therefore we have marked this claim as false.