(2nd LD) Nearly 2,000 reports of suspicious int'l parcels received nationwide: police

▲ A firefighter collects an unspecified international package delivered to a home in the port city of Busan, 320 kilometers south of Seoul, on July 22, 2023. (Yonhap)

(2nd LD) suspicious parcel-police

(2nd LD) Nearly 2,000 reports of suspicious int'l parcels received nationwide: police

(ATTN: CHANGES headline, lead; RECASTS paras 2-5 with additional info)

SEOUL/CHEONAN, South Korea, July 23 (Yonhap) -- Close to 2,000 reports of suspicious parcels have been received from across the nation over the past four days, police said Sunday, amid concern they might contain hazardous materials.

A total of 257 new reports related to the delivery of dubious parcels have been filed with the police in the last 12 hours, officials said, bringing the total number of such reports to 1,904 as of 5 a.m. Sunday, according to the National Police Agency.

Of them, 587 packages were collected by police for investigation while the rest were mistaken reports.

Reports of suspicious parcels began coming in on Thursday, sparking fears that they could contain hazardous or poisonous material. But no such substances have been found so far. In most parcels, lip balm or other cheap products were found, with some packages delivered empty.

Earlier in the day, police received a report of a suspicious international parcel sent from Taiwan to a home in the central city of Cheonan. They conducted an investigation after X-ray scans raised suspicions the package contained an unknown gas, but no gas was found, police said.

Police are looking into the possibility of a "brushing scam," in which sellers at online shopping platforms send unordered products to people after illegally acquiring personal information. The scam is aimed at boosting sales and manipulating sellers' ratings on online shopping sites.

Authorities called for vigilance against suspicious international parcels. They said the color of such packages could be yellow or black, and they could have "CHUNGHWA POST" written on them. The sender could be P.O. Box 100561-003777, Taipei Taiwan.

The Taipei Mission in South Korea said it had found that such parcels were initially sent from China and arrived in South Korea after a stopover in Taiwan.

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