Illinois Man Stuck With Over 150 Unwanted Packages From TikTok Shop Glitch

He said in this situation, a porch pirate would've been a hero.

TikTok shop has gained more and more popularity over the recent years. It allows users to shop their favorite products they see on the app-from clothes to makeup to kids' toys. And there can be some solid buys (or messes) off the TikTok shop. Then there's this situation.

One Oak Forest man, who told NBC Chicago he doesn't even have TikTok, has had dozens and dozens of packages show up at his house daily since last fall.

The packages were...specific. The man, named Charles Coleman, said the packages just had 'aromatherapy' written on it, had his address (not his name), and it was a diffuser shaped like a fireplace that are all over TikTok shops.

They figured out Coleman's address was given as the return address for the diffusers.

He guesses that over 150 packages have been sent to his house since September. He put signs in and around his mailbox. The post office started rejecting the packages but UPS and FedEx still tried to deliver them.

Coleman told the outlet:

It also concerned me because i thought it was gonna interfere with my legitimate mail, legitimate packages, prescriptions, and things like that.

So how did this situation start? Kevin Brassler with Consumers Checkbook says Coleman's address was likely just chosen randomly and it is actually a form of identity theft.

Scammers are basically sending stuff out, they know they're going to get a lot of returns, and they've set up somebody else to have to handle the returns. They're trying to disguise where they are, and one way to do that is if TikTok Shop is requiring you to send out, oh, here you have to have an address people can return stuff to if they don't like it, well, he's using a fake address...A lot of times it's so costly for them to repackage it and resell it and reprocess it for another buyer that it's just easier to keep, you know, just keep the thing

The issue for Coleman finally got resolved.

By the way, the Federal Trade Commission says that if you receive merchandise you didn't order, you're legally allowed to keep it as a free gift. But if you don't want the stuff like Coleman, call the Post Office and ask them to refuse the packages.