Here is how this one works (it has several victims tied into it): a person applies for a job online, with some innocuous title, like shipping assistant or even administrative assistant. It is always with someone from outside the country and what they want to do is ship goods to you and send you labels, etc so you can ship them elsewhere. They'll have some half-plausible story as to why they need to do this.
But what you are really doing is receiving stolen goods that they have purchased with stolen credit cards and re-shipping those stolen goods elsewhere for them. Instead of a job, you are now partaking in a criminal activity.
And for the final slap in the face, the scammer will promise to pay you monthly but when the first paycheck date arrives, they will either dump you a day or two before or they will pay you with a fraudulent money order check and then disappear and seek their next "assistant". The authorities rarely find the scammer but do find the person or people doing the re-shipping. The other victim in this scam is of course the owner of the stolen credit card number as the scammer racks up purchases until that number is closed down and then they move on to the next stolen credit card number they have.
Today in the news, in Michigan, two couples in one town now face fraud charges for receiving stolen goods and shipping them elsewhere. The police thought the cases must be connected but it turns out they were not connected at all. Both couples had applied for online jobs and didn't realize what they were doing was a criminal activity. Their scammer said he was from India, but who knows where he really was from. The couples said they made about $200-$300 a month but "the man told police they had been reshipping packages for about a month and had not yet been paid." Classic. The police found out because the owners of the credit cards had reported the fraudulent purchases on their cards. At their home, the police opened packages that arrived from Hong Kong and in both cases of the couples, the purchases were iPads and computers. The other couple had packages waiting to be re-shipped to Russia.
Then it appears the one woman must have understood what was happening because her "employer" sent her a credit card in her name and she purchased a computer, 2 iPads, and paid some personal bills before "destroying the card". Huh. She must have known what she was doing was illegal. The other couple seem more clueless. The police charged the one couple who seem to know what they were doing with fraud and receiving/concealing stolen property and the investigation into the other couple is continuing.
So. There is no such thing as a legitimate online job where you are being asked to receive and then re-ship goods, or receive and re-mail money orders elsewhere, especially out of the country.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
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Here is a variation of the same, where Nigerians (busy guys those Nigerians are) are posting jobs ads for "administrative" people to receive checks (which are just stolen), deposit them (yes, they will later turn out to be withdrawn because they are fake), and ship the remainder of the balance elsewhere via Western Union. It's not re-shipping of stolen goods, and its not quite re-shipping of stolen money - it's more like the Fake Buyer Scam where they over-pay for an item with a fake check or stolen credit card number and ask the extra be shipped back to them via Western Union. So this example is really a hybrid of several scams.
ReplyDeleteHere is the article:
Nigerian scammers target New Zealand online job seekers
Customs is warning job seekers to be aware of a Nigerian scam targeting New Zealanders applying for jobs online. This follows the interception of counterfeit bank cheques destined for a New Zealand “Agent” unwittingly recruited through their response to an online job advert.
Customs Investigations Manager Shane Panettiere said Customs intercepted 364 counterfeit bank cheques with a face value of $2.5 million. The cheques were of high quality and could have been accepted as genuine by the recipient.
“It appears the intended recipients were instructed to cash the cheques at a bank, retain a small proportion of the money, and send the balance offshore. Fortunately the scam was discovered at an early stage and no financial victims have been identified.”
Customs’ enquiries revealed an employment scam where applicants for jobs posted on well known websites would receive the counterfeit cheques via the “Agent” as payment for administrative assignments.
“New Zealanders applying for jobs online should check the authenticity of the recruiting organisation before providing CVs or contact and bank account details to unknown individuals,” Mr Panettiere said.
These types of scams have resulted in victims sending large amounts of money to Nigeria that cannot be recovered.
Recent amendments to the Customs and Excise Act 1996 have increased Customs’ ability to intercept items designed to facilitate dishonesty offences. Penalties for knowingly importing goods of this kind may include a maximum $10,000 fine or up to 6 months imprisonment.
Customs works closely with the New Zealand Police Financial Crime Unit, overseas agencies and domestic financial institutions when investigating these types of crimes.
Concerned members of the public can contact Customs on 0800 4 CUSTOMS (0800 428 786). Details of how you can protect yourself from scams can be found on the Scamwatch section of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs website.