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  Geebo 8:11 am on May 5, 2021 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: mail fraud ( 21 ), repackaging ( 22 ), reshipping ( 22 ), Scams ( 1,354 ), Utah   

  Victim calls unwitting participant in scam 

  

  By Greg Collier

  We’ve discussed the reshipping or repackaging scam many times before. These scams start out as online job listings that have been placed by scammers. The ads will offer work at home positions with titles like ‘shipping coordinator’, ‘warehouse distribution coordinator, or ‘local hub inspector’. You’ll be ‘hired’ almost immediately without ever meeting your employers face to face. You’ll be instructed to receive packages at your home. Once you receive a package, you’ll be asked to photograph the contents before shipping the goods to their new destination. While the phony job is supposed to be seen as a form of quality control, what you’re really doing is sending fraudulently purchased items to people who will then sell the stolen items.

  A woman in Utah recently applied for one of these phony jobs. She needed extra money to help pay off her student loan debt. She found the position on a legitimate job board. Furthermore, she was hired on as a ‘warehouse coordinator’ almost immediately. The woman was promised $2000 a month along with $40 for every package she shipped. All she had to do was print off shipping labels that the job would send to her and take the packages to the post office. The woman then received an angry phone call from someone accusing her of buying items with the caller’s stolen credit card. When the woman spoke with her new employer they told her that calls like this were ‘normal’. That’s when the woman realized she was part of a scam.

  This woman was lucky she got out when she did. More often than not in the reshipping scam, the unwitting reshippers are often paid with fraudulent checks. Some of these reshipping operations are so sophisticated that they have official looking web portals where the reshippers can report their hours and progress.

  There’s also another hazard to this scam besides lost wages and angry phone calls. Reshippers can sometimes be arrested for their roles even if they didn’t know it was a scam. If you knowingly falsify shipping documents under the instruction of the scammers to get around US customs, you could potentially face some jail time.

  Please keep in mind that reshipping jobs aren’t a thing. There are no legitimate reshipping jobs.

   

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  Geebo 8:00 am on June 21, 2019 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: e-scooters, electric vehicles, hacking ( 31 ), new york ( 16 ), Regulus, taxes ( 8 ), Tesla Model 3, Utah   

  Teslas hacked and more electric vehicle news! 

  

  If you’re in the market for a Tesla Model 3 and want to take advantage of its Enhanced Autopilot feature, you may want to think again. A team of cybersecurity researchers known as Regulus claims that they have been able to hack into a Tesla Model 3 and essentially take remote control of the car while on autopilot. Regulus performed this experiment in a closed location and were successfully able to cause the car to malfunction with parts that can be bought off the shelf. While it’s doubtful that these attacks will become widespread immediately, it does show that autonomous vehicles may not be ready for primetime just yet as many of its proponents claim.

  [youtube https://youtu.be/fJwEpcAQou0%5D

  The State of New York is getting ready to pass legislation that would make electric scooters and bicycles available for rent in their state. However, it will be up to the individual municipalities to determine where the scooters can be ridden and left out for rent. What remains to be seen is how they will be embraced by residents of the Empire State. In many communities such as Seattle and Austin, Texas, many residents have found them to be a public nuisance have taken to throwing the scooters in lakes and rivers. While New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is supporting the new legislation, it will be interesting to see if scooters in the Five Boroughs end up in the Hudson River.

  Lastly, if you own an electric or hybrid vehicle and live in the state of Utah, you may be paying more out of pocket. While only 2% of vehicles in Utah are electric or a hybrid, the state is looking to make up for the loss in revenue when it comes to the highway tax that the state makes off of gasoline sales. Under a voluntary program starting in January, the state would want to charge electric and hybrid drivers 1.5 cents for every mile driven. While a tax like this seems inevitable with many drivers moving on to electric vehicles it will be interesting to see how states enforce such a tax once electric vehicles become more commonplace.

   
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  Geebo 9:59 am on March 9, 2018 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: burglary, craigslist ( 129 ), home invasion, Utah   

  Don’t ever let them in 

  

  One of the cardinal rules when selling or buying something through a classifieds site is to never let the person on the other side of your transaction to come to your home. Unfortunately, some sites and apps with less than stellar reputations, such as craigslist, have attracted a criminal element that are more than willing to take advantage of a situation like that. While this may seem like common sense to most, some consumers are still in need of reminding.

  For example, in Santa Clara, Utah, a family had their home burglarized after a couple with a baby came to their home while looking at a car the family was selling on craigslist. While the family was showing the car they had several valuable items taken from their home right under their noses. Luckily, there was no violence involved with this burglary as there has been with so many others.

  One of the more infamous craigslist home invasions happened in 2010 in Kirkland, Washington, where a family was held captive and the father, James Sanders, was killed after the family advertised a diamond ring for sale on craigslist.

  Meeting in a public place during daylight hours isn’t enough anymore either. As always, we recommend using the SafeTrade Stations that are linked to in each Geebo ad, or your local police department, to conduct these kind of transactions.