Unscrupulous eastern European cyber mafias are preying on U.S. workers that try to make ends meet and look for a second (or third) job. This is not a new scam, but it is sticking up its ugly head again in a slightly different form. The scam was newly reported by our friends at hoax-slayer.
Phishing emails go out looking for a "Transportation Manager" which involves accepting, repacking and reposting various parcels. It looks like an easy and well-paid job that you can do from home.
The scam comes in two forms:
There are two forms of this scam. One is to have the person fill out a form with a lot of personal information which then gets used for Identity Theft. The second form is even worse. The job is in fact a criminal ruse designed to trick you into receiving goods bought with stolen credit cards and sending them on to your new criminal 'employer', often overseas. Supposedly, the 'company' will cover all postage fees and you will receive a monthly salary as well as a per-package 'commission'.
"Job" is a reshipping Scam
The criminals are too smart to have the goods delivered directly to their own homes, because that could help police locate and identify them. So, instead, they line up a 'parcel mule' who will accept delivery of the ill-gotten goods and reship them to a location specified by the thieves.
To add insult to injury, the victim may be 'paid' via a fake or stolen check, or worse, funds transferred from hijacked accounts. The workers may be asked to deduct their 'wage' and 'commission' from these funds and wire the remainder back to the 'company' via a money wire service such as Western Union. This way, the workers not only reship tainted goods, they may also be tricked into laundering money stolen by the criminals.
'Workers' May Become Trapped and Face Criminal Charges
Often, investigations lead police directly to the doors of the victim. People caught up in such scams have faced criminal charges and had to deal with ongoing and damaging repercussions. Moreover, people can become trapped within such schemes and find it quite difficult to extricate themselves. After they have already started the job, they may belatedly realize that they are involved in a scam. But, by that time, they may be too scared to involve police in case they get in trouble themselves. And, if they try to terminate the arrangement, the criminals may threaten them with exposure or bully them into continuing.
The upshot
Treat any offer that involves you receiving goods at your house or payments on your bank accounts as very suspect, delete these emails and never answer them. If you get emails that promise easy jobs via the Internet, and ask for a lot of personal information, do not give out any personal data unless you are sure that the outfit is legit, and even then be very wary!
