Say a package shows up at your door. You didn’t order it. You have no idea what it is. Then a few days later, you get a bill for it.
Here’s the thing: you don’t have to pay. And you don’t have to return it.
According to the FTC, companies are legally prohibited from sending you unsolicited merchandise and then demanding payment. If something arrives that you never ordered, you’re entitled to keep it as a free gift — full stop. No obligation, no guilt, no need to call anyone.
This isn’t a loophole or a gray area. It’s spelled out in federal law. Under 39 U.S.C. § 3009, mailing unordered merchandise is prohibited, and anything sent in violation of that law “may be treated as a gift by the recipient, who shall have the right to retain, use, discard, or dispose of it in any manner he sees fit without any obligation whatsoever to the sender.” That’s the actual legal language.
So what do you do if a bill shows up? You are not required to pay it. You don’t owe anything for merchandise you never asked for. If a company keeps pressuring you or threatens to send the bill to collections, that’s worth documenting — but the law is on your side from the start.
One heads-up: sometimes packages arrive from unknown senders with your name and address, but no bill ever follows. This can be a “brushing scam” — a tactic where sellers ship cheap items to real addresses so they can post fake verified reviews. You can legally keep the item, but it’s a good idea to check that your account passwords are secure and to report it to the retailer whose name may have been used.
One more thing to keep in mind: this applies to things you genuinely never ordered. If you signed up for a subscription box or a “free trial” that auto-ships products, that’s a different situation — you did agree to that arrangement, even if the terms were buried in fine print. The protection here is specifically for merchandise that shows up completely out of nowhere with no prior agreement at all.
Bottom line — if a random package lands on your doorstep, enjoy it. You’re not doing anything wrong by keeping it.