Florida man falls victim to reshipping scam
We’ve discussed the repackaging or reshipping scam previously. Traditionally, scammers will advertise this scam as a work from home position where your job is to inspect packages you receive from the scammers. Then you’d be instructed to send the contents of the packages to a third party. The third party is usually someone overseas. These positions are often advertised online with such titles as ‘shipping coordinator’, ‘warehouse distribution coordinator, or ‘local hub inspector’. More recently, a man from Florida was taken in by these scammers.
The man had been out of work for months due to the pandemic. He spent months sending out resumes and applications to various employers. He received a job offer from a company for the position of ‘quality control inspector’. The man was asked to inspect 18 packages before sending them overseas. The victim started to become suspicious after he had not been paid for 30 days. He then received a letter from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service warning him that he may be the victim of a reshipping scam.
This man is actually kind of lucky after being caught up in this scam. In most cases, scammers will pay their victims using phony checks. He could have potentially lost thousands of dollars to the scammers. However, this man is not out of the woods yet. He did send the scammers his personal and financial information for what he believed to be for direct deposit. He could potentially be open to identity theft if it hasn’t happened already.
The most dangerous part of the reshipping scam is that victims could possibly find themselves in jail. Even if you’re a victim in this scam, if you knowingly falsify shipping documents under the instruction of the scammers to get around US customs, you could face some jail time.
If you think you may be a victim in a reshipping scam, there are steps you can take. If you’ve already received items don’t mail them. Instead, contact the USPS Postal Inspectors at 1-877-876-2455.
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