Reshipping

Reshipping fraud can both cost you a lot of money and involve you in an international fencing operation that could land you in hot water!

Reshipping packages has become the latest in a long list of home business scams. The scam works when people are promised considerable sums of money for receiving, repackaging and then mailing merchandise that was originally ordered online and sent to a foreign address.

Unknown to the person who agrees to this process is that the items in the boxes were purchased using stolen credit cards.

Unwittingly the person working out of their home to reship these packages has become an integral part of a merchandise fencing outfit. Records show this con has cost over hundreds of thousands of dollars to victims.

However, the ads looking for people to do this reshipping from home continue and people continue to answer them, ignorant of the fraud they’re helping to perpetuate.

How home reshipping scams work

Reshipping job opportunities appear everywhere. Some ads are placed in newspapers and you can even find listings on Monster.com as well as other well-known job placement websites.

When you answer the ad you will be asked to send the reshipping employer your personal information which will need to include your social security number and date of birth.

After the employer is sent the required personal information packages will start arriving at your home with instructions on how to repackage and then send the merchandise to specified addresses abroad.

When your payment for repackaging the merchandise arrives it will be in the form of a third party cashier’s check which should raise flags since the normal way of doing business is to send a paycheck. These cashier’s checks will usually be for more than the amount initially agreed upon and the employer will request that once you have cashed them, please send the overpay back to them electronically to their overseas bank account.

Once you have completed this transaction you have a big problem because before the check clears the bank will realize that the cashier’s check is phony and you will be responsible for the entire amount of that check. To make matters worse, your “employer” also has your personal information and it’s a safe bet that they are going to use it to defraud even more unwitting people who will become “employees” of this reshipping scam.

You could be in big trouble with the law as well because all of the merchandise that you so faithfully repackaged and sent abroad was purchased with stolen credit cards.

Look before you leap into a home business offer

If you see an ad for a home business opportunity that seems extremely easy to do (like repackaging consumer goods) with the promise of easy and high income then you should investigate the business before you become involved with it. Scam artists prey upon people with low incomes and less education with these bogus job opportunities because they know very well how much they need the money.

Postal Scam Tips

The U.S. Postal Service offers a few tips to help you protect yourself against fraudulent work from home opportunities that involve reshipping:

  • If it’s a person you don’t know or a company you’ve never heard of before, don’t provide them with any of your personal information.
  • Be mistrustful of any opportunity that doesn’t pay a regular salary or engages a foreign company.
  • Perform research on the company by running its name by the Federal Trade Commission, the Better Business Bureau, state Attorney General, or your local consumer protection agency.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service was put in place to investigate and protect consumers against fraud perpetrated through the U.S. Postal Service.

As a result, the U.S. Mail is considered one of the safest and most competent methods for Americans to do business. U.S. Postal Inspectors field close to 100,000 mail fraud complaints and arrest approximately 1,500 suspects for mail fraud each year.

Work at Home Scam Links:

Subscribe
Notify of
12 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Amber
7 years ago

What do you do with the package if you have recieced one?

Carlos silva
7 years ago

Hi amber. I received two packages and what i did went directly to post office, printed all emails to prove that was a scam and explained the sitúation and returned the packages. They thanked me for my honestity and took my phone number so they can continúe investigating

Tronathan
7 years ago

Are any work from home reshipping positions/ companies legitimate?

Ryan
2 years ago
Reply to  Tronathan

There are a lot of legitimate ones but just as many illegitimate.

Trey
7 years ago

What if you keep the package

Janelle
5 years ago
Reply to  Trey

The cops will serve you with a warrant for your arrest and you will have to come up with bail money, attorney fees etc

Liz
6 years ago

So I should take the packages to the post office?

Doug ernst
4 years ago

Took my packages to a local police station who took receipt a lost property since no crime had been committed yet and got a receipt from them interesting enough I was then threatened by the packaging company that I had expensive packages and that they were going to send somebody from their organization to pick them up or the police and when I told him that as luck would have it the police have your packages that’s where I took them and I gave them the the log number and the address. I haven’t heard anything back since that point. Although I have to say I am concerned about the fact that they do have my personal information and I’m worried about what he might do with it.

Diane
4 years ago

I almost got scam through a work at home reshipping scam. I came across them on indeed job website, it’s sad when you are truly looking for a job on a legitimate website and it a scam. They focus on the unemployment peoples who are truly trying to find a job. The Unemployment Website need to do more research on jobs before they post them on their website but they get paid as well for posting them. So if you see a company name GET IT SERVICE LLC it a scam thank goodness they didn’t ask for my personal information just a copy of my driver license that only have my address and date of birth on it nothing really serious. The package was scheduled to arrive through Fedex today but it was postponed until tomorrow due to the bad weather last night, so when Fedex arrived with the package tomorrow am just going to inform them of the scam and refuse to sign for it. I reported it as well but when it going overseas it’s only so much they can do.

Alexander Hardie
4 years ago

What is the rational behind the reshipping scam?

Gretchen
3 years ago

I got scammed. I thought I had vetted the ‘Insurance Company’. I took pictures of the product and copies of emails and the report. What do I do now?

Rita
3 years ago

I’ve fallen for these scams many times, when they ask for my personal information (SSN) i always give a made-up one, not my real one. When the packages start coming in, i sometimes forward 1 or 2, leading them to believe i’m trustworthy then keep the rest for myself.