Don’t Be the Victim of a Reshipping Scam!
Have you been asked to receive packages at your home or business and mail
them
to someone else? Postal Inspectors advise: Don’t do it!
Criminals who conduct reshipping scams recruit victims through a variation of
one of these scenarios:
Work-at-Home Scams
Criminals often post phony job announcements at Internet career sites, offering
positions such as “merchandising manager,” “package processing
assistant,” or a similar title. Job duties generally include receiving
packages and mailing them to a foreign address on behalf of a client. The websites
may look legitimate, and they may offer to send you postage-paid mailing labels.
The real story? The offers come from criminals who buy merchandise with stolen credit cards and need help smuggling the goods out of the country. Even the mailing labels are phony. And you are committing a felony when you help out these criminals.
Sweetheart
Scams
The same criminals operating work-at-home scams often lurk on dating websites.
They send a few e-mails to get to know you, and may even send a photo or flowers.
Once they have your attention, they ask you to help their business or family
by shipping packages to Europe or Africa.
The real story? You’re being asked to commit a crime by smuggling stolen goods. The photo may look like your perfect match, but it’s a fake—and could be the picture of your worst nightmare.
Charity Scams
Charity scams are just another method of tricking
innocent people into mailing stolen goods. The scammers ask for your help forwarding “donated” merchandise.
You receive packages
mailed under multiple names, as well as labels for a charity in Africa or another
part of the world.
The real story? It’s another ploy to trick people into moving stolen merchandise out of the country.
What should you do if you’ve been tricked into one of these scams?