In many of the common work-at-home scams, the victims of the scam lose their hard-earned money that they put into the so-called “business opportunity”. While that on its own is terrible, there are some home-based business scams that can cause even worse things to happen to those people that are unfortunate enough to have become involved in them. Re-shipping is a phony “business opportunity” that gets its participants involved in moving stolen property. Not only do you not make any money if you fall for this scam, you could get in trouble with the law.
There are a few ways that re-shipping “job opportunities” are marketed to potential victims. In one scenario, the scammers misappropriated the name of a well-known retailer (Best Buy) and advertised opportunities for home-based workers to gift wrap items that had supposedly been purchased through Best Buy and ship them to the “customers”, who were usually overseas. In reality, the items that were sent to the home-based gift wrappers were stolen.
Another way that the re-shipping scams attract victims is by calling their “job opportunity” a “mail manager” position. You get sent items that you must repackage and send to a recipient, again often overseas. The items are usually either stolen or have been bought with stolen credit cards.
One way that you can avoid getting involved in a re-shipping scam is to understand that well-known companies such as Best Buy usually offer employment only through their company web sites. If you go to a company’s web site and look at job postings, you will see legitimate work opportunities. Most of them are not for home-based work, though. If you get an email or other communication purporting to offer a job for a well known company, it is likely a scam. Another word of caution about re-shipping scams – they are often advertised in legitimate magazines and newspapers, as well as on career sites like Monster.com. No matter where the so-called repackaging opportunity is advertised, it is a scam. Run; do not walk, to another home-based business opportunity that won’t involve you in an international crime.