University student unions in the Maritimes and across the country have been getting some strange shipments from Amazon.

The packages have been arriving in clusters since late November, with no return address, no students claiming them, and no rhyme nor reason to the items inside.

“If we try to guess what's going to be in the box, we're probably not going to get it right,” says Tristan Gaudet, president of the Universite de Moncton Student Federation. “But we have been receiving a lot of sex toys. That's something that's been reoccurring.”

UdeM has received roughly 40 items worth more than $1,000. And they're not alone. Student unions across the country are reporting the same bizarre phenomenon.

“We kept them in storage, but after hearing from other student unions who were also experiencing similar things, we started connecting the dots, reaching out,” says Dalhousie Student Union president Amina Abawajy.

Dalhousie University has received more than 60 anonymous packages since late November, while St. FX, Mount Allison University, the University of New Brunswick and the University of Prince Edward Island have all confirmed similar incidents.

In a statement to CTV News, an Amazon spokesman said: “We are investigating inquiries from consumers who have received unsolicited packages as this would violate our policies. We have confirmed the sellers involved did not receive names or shipping addresses from Amazon. We remove sellers in violation of our policies, withhold payments, and work with law enforcement to take appropriate action.”

RCMP in northern Ontario have said this is likely a marketing ploy from Chinese companies targeting students.

“We didn't want to be taking something someone really paid for,” Gaudet says. “We evaluated the value to approximately $1,000, so for us, if someone is paying for all of this we don't want to be taking it.”

The students won't decide what to do with the items until they have more information, but Gaudet and Abawajy hope to give back to students through fundraisers or prizes.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Cami Kepke.