by Chris Durst May 31, 2023
Hold onto your hats — reshipping scams are on the rise… AGAIN! In this post, I’ll give you an overview of what these scams look like and why, if you become involved, you could land in jail, in debt, or both.
THE “JOB”
“We will pay you to receive packages in your home and reship them to our customers.”
“We will pay you to receive and inspect packages, then forward them to our customers.”
“We will pay you to wrap gifts at home and ship them to their recipients.”
The phrasing may vary from one “job offer” to the next but, when you break it down, you are essentially receiving and re-shipping packages.
They may call you a “Gift Wrapper,” “Logistics Manager,” “Package Inspector,” “Remote Courier,” or one of many other names.
No matter what “job title” it’s given, these so-called opportunities are part of a RESHIPPING SCAM and, once you accept the job offer, you’re becoming part of an international crime ring that could land you in jail.
We have spoken with dozens of people who thought they had landed their ideal work from home job — great pay, easy work, and home-based — only to find that they would not be paid and, in some cases, would end up with a visit from the police who are holding a warrant to search their homes.
HERE’S AN EXAMPLE OF SUCH AN EMAIL THAT WAS FORWARDED TO US BY ONE OF OUR RRREBELS.
HERE’S HOW THE SCAM UNFOLDS:
1. You see a job ad or are contacted directly by the “employer” (usually by email) because they found your resume on one of the big job sites and feel you’d be ideal for a job they have open. You may also find these opportunities listed on “Work from Home” Facebook pages and in other social media environments.
When you check them out, they may have a website that looks pretty well established and professional.
RED FLAG: Some of these scammers will go so far at to use the name of a legitimate company in an effort to gain your confidence. LOOK AT THE EMAIL ADDRESS. If they claim to be reaching out from Amazon (as an example) but the email you receive comes from a Gmail, Email.com, or other non-Amazon.com email address, it’s a scam! In the example we posted above, the scammer is using a GMX.com address – GMX is another free email account.
2. You apply for the job and the interview takes place via email or chat – usually Google Chat, Zoom, Telegram, etc., but may occasionally include a phone “interview” as well.
RED FLAG: Scammers who live overseas will generally try to keep all interaction in writing for fear that you might grow suspicious that everyone in the company has a foreign accent and this type of scam is almost always based overseas.
3. You may receive scans of documents that are intended to show you that the company is real. Certificates of business, etc.
RED FLAG: When have you ever applied for a job and had a company send you documents to prove they are a real company? Never, right?
There’s a good chance the company will claim to be overseas and they are just trying to put you at ease. What they are really doing is playing a confidence game. If they send you lots of meaningless documents that they created themselves, you just might believe the are real!
4. You can basically say whatever you want (other than calling them scammers) and they will STILL offer you the “job” as long as you can commit to being at your home to receive packages.
RED FLAG: Come on, a botched interview usually ends with a, “no thanks,” not a, “Congratulations!”
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5. You will be told pay is monthly and they will may for your social security number, banking information (or PayPal address), and maybe a photo of your Driver’s License and other confidential information. They will tell you this is so that they can pay you through direct deposit.
RED FLAG: You will be “working” for them for 30 days without pay. That means they can use you as a pawn in their scam for a full month before you discover you are not getting paid and nobody is replying to your messages any more. (They’ll be SUPER responsive while you are receiving and shipping their packages, but suddenly… crickets.)
6. They may set you up with an online dashboard where you can see what packages you are expecting and download pre-paid shipping labels. They’ll be riding herd on you now to make sure you turn these packages around and reship them quickly.
RED FLAG: The online dashboard is in place for two reasons — to give the impression of legitimacy and to ensure you can move very quickly in your handling of the packages! They may be contacting you with annoying frequency once you are in receipt of their package(s). That’s because they know they have you for just 30 days and they want to get as many packages through your hands as possible before you realize you’ve been scammed.
7. You may notice that the package has your address and someone else’s name on it. This isn’t always the case, but it will happen. If you ask the “employer” about it, they will tell you that’s the name of the person who ordered the gift so that you don’t ask any more questions.
RED FLAG: The name on the mailing label is the name of the person whose STOLEN CREDIT CARD or HACKED ACCOUNT they have used to purchase the merchandise you now have in your home.
That’s right, you are now in possession of STOLEN GOODS!
8. Once you send the first package, the stream of packages will increase.
RED FLAG: You are now officially part of their criminal network and they want to get everything out of you as quickly as possible so the tempo will pick up quickly!
9. As the first of your big fat paychecks is due to arrive, you will suddenly be locked out of that official-looking online dashboard (if they had one). Your messages will no longer be answered.
Suddenly, you realize you’ve been scammed. You just worked for 30 days without pay.
What you don’t know is that it is SO MUCH WORSE THAN THAT. You have unwittingly been committing a crime and all evidence leads back to YOU being the mastermind behind it all!
Looking for a REAL Work from Home Job or Gig? Check out the Rat Race Rebellion BIG LIST of WORK FROM HOME JOBS AND GIGS!
WHAT JUST HAPPENED?
Criminals from overseas set up an intricate scam and you unknowingly became a very important part of making it work.
They started by:
- Stealing people’s credit card numbers
- Breaching people’s cell phone accounts and other accounts that are used to purchase or upgrade merchandise
- They set up a fake business into which they recruited you and many others for amazing-sounding work from home jobs.
- Using those stolen cards and accounts, they begin ordering merchandise and having it shipped to those at-home “re-shippers.”
- Those at-home re-shippers have been carefully sending those packages along to individuals who will ultimately ensure they end up in a overseas shipping container.
- Once that container is full, it will be loaded onto a ship that will steam across the ocean and deliver all of that lovely stolen merchandise to the scammers.
In the meantime…
The people who had their credit cards stolen are receiving their statements and calling the stores where charges were made. That conversation is going something like this…
“Hey, what’s this charge on my card for? I didn’t buy anything from you!”
“Let me see. That’s for the iPhone you ordered last month.”
“I’m telling you I didn’t order an iPhone or anything else from you!”
“Let me check the details for you. Yes, I see here that we sent your new iPhone to <insert address of an at-home re-shipper here.> Is that your address?”
“No, that is not my address. It has never been my address.”
“I’m sorry. We will look into this further.”
And look into it they will. At first, they’ll think that perhaps someone keyed in a credit card number incorrectly but, shortly, they’ll contact the authorities and tell them that someone at YOUR address placed an order using a stolen credit card.
If you shipped 12 packages, this will happen 12 times — that’s 12 times that law enforcement now thinks you have placed an order with a stolen credit card and received merchandise that you didn’t pay for.
All eyes are on you and there is a very good chance the police will be showing up on your doorstep — possibly with a search warrant that gives them permission to go through your home in search of the stolen merchandise.
By the way, if the packages you shipped were using pre-paid labels for the US POSTAL SERVICE, you unwittingly committed a federal crime.
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BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!
REMEMBER HOW YOU GAVE THE SCAMMERS YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER AND BANKING DETAILS SO THEY COULD PAY YOU?…
In some cases, the scammers have also used the personal and financial information you provided to apply for credit cards in your name, withdraw money from your bank account, or steal your identity.
This is the scam that just keeps on giving.
THEY GOT ME! WHAT CAN I DO?!
Take Steps to Ensure The Scammers Don’t Get Your Money or Identity
In most cases, depending on what information you provided to the scammers, they may have a copy of your DRIVER’S LICENSE, SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER, BANK ACCOUNT NUMBER, PAYPAL ACCOUNT INFORMATION or other details.
With the right combination of information, scammers can open credit card accounts in your name, try to set up fake PayPal accounts and cause other financial trouble.
If you have concerns about this:
- Notify your bank to alert them to be on the lookout for any unusual activity and/or, ask them to assign you a new account number.
- Visit the Social Security Administration website to find out what you can do about possible identity theft: https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10064.pdf
- Contact one of the three major credit-reporting agencies — Equifax, TransUnion, or Experian — to place a fraud alert on your credit file. To speak to Equifax, call 1-888-766-0008 or visit this Web page. To contact Experian, call 1-888-397-3742 or go here. For TransUnion, the phone number is 1-800-680-7289 or you can go here. The agency you place a fraud alert with will contact the other two. Renew the fraud alert every 90 days (it’s free to do so) until you’re satisfied the matter has been settled; it could take years.
Go On the Record With the Police – Get to Them BEFORE the Credit Card Companies Do
1. The local police will not be able to track the scammers as they are outside of the US, but you should go to the nearest State Police station and report that you are a victim of a scam. While you are there, get the name of the officer you speak with, their badge number, and the date and time you spoke with them.
This will be important if/when they are contacted by a store or credit card company stating that you have committed a crime.
They will still have to investigate, but the fact that you self-reported will help you in the long run.
2. Print out every email communication, every mailing label, every piece of information you have that helps to show that you REALLY thought you were performing work for a legitimate job.
3. Make at least FOUR files and put a full set of copies of everything you printed out. Keep one for yourself and keep the other three in a place where you can access them easily to give to the authorities if/when they show up at your home.
DO NOT make the mistake of handing the only evidence you have of your innocence over without keeping copies for yourself.
Understand that, if the police come to your home with a search warrant, they will likely take your computer so DO NOT assume you don’t need a printed copy since you already have it on your computer.
4. If the police do show up at your home, don’t be difficult.
REMEMBER, they have hard evidence that YOU DID RECEIVE STOLEN GOODS. Every package was sent to your address, so you are the only person who is on their radar. They are not trying to set you up, they are following the paper trail.
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Please share this post with everyone you know who is looking for a work from home job.
These scams are so expertly executed — most with very professional-looking websites — that they can come across as highly-believable to even to the most careful job seekers.
We need your help in spreading the word. This type of scam has been going on for years — with most of the stolen goods shipping to Russia and Eastern Bloc countries.
Still Not Sure How This Scam Works?
Watch our video about Reshipping Scams on YouTube.
We’ve done our best to spread the word on our own, but the scam continues to rope in thousands of Americans who are looking for a real job. Maybe, if we all work together, we can help to turn off this tap of stolen goods and broken dreams.
Thank you and be safe, RRRebls!
FOR REAL WORK FROM HOME JOBS & GIGS, check our Newest Jobs & Gigs page. To be the first to hear about jobs like these, like our Facebook page and check your feed for our posts. May you be working from home soon!
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