PHOENIX — Want to make $30 an hour shipping packages and working from home?
As the pandemic continues, more people are answering job ads and some are losing money instead of making it.
Lexis told the Let Joe Know team about a remote position that looked great working from home.
It had $3,000 base pay and bonuses and the job allegedly paid $3,800 on average.
She would work quality control.
"They said you'd have packages sent to your house. You unpackage them, check them, take photos of everything and send them out within 24 hours," she says.
Lexis was intrigued. The company interviewed her by phone and she found most of the questions odd.
"They were like, 'Do you have a printer?' Yeah. 'Are you going to be home during these hours?' Yeah. 'Are you ok with shipping things out in 24 hours?' Yeah. No questions about me, " Lexis says.
Was it a great opportunity or was it a scam?
With COVID raging, people out of work and wanting remote-jobs, last year the Federal Trade Commission had more income job scam complaints than ever before.
One of the big scams involves reshipping.
You're hired to receive packages. But what you don't know is the packages contain merchandise that the scammers bought with stolen credit card information.
That "stolen" merchandise is sent directly to you.
"It doesn't come back to them. It goes directly to your house," says Liz Davis, a U.S. Postal Inspector in Phoenix.
You then send it back to the scammer.
When the real credit card owner finds out they've been scammed, Davis says, "They call authorities and authorities track down the things bought. And they track them all the way to you."
So, you don't get paid while the scammer sells the merchandise for a big profit.
We're not naming the business Lexis dealt with because they are usually just made-up names. Instead, check the warning signs if you see a similar job listing.
Warnings include getting a job without meeting the employer, high pay for light work and a job that doesn't make sense.
"There isn't a legitimate reason someone can't directly take a product and mail it directly to those countries," Davis says.
Lexis did some investigative work on her own and found another bad sign.
"I looked up Google Maps and the address is an empty warehouse," she says.
Also, she couldn't find anything online about the business or the executives so Lexis decided to move on.
Even though you'd be a victim in these cases, Davis says you could still be charged with a crime, especially if you were warned and continued the activity.
Learn more about job scams by clicking here.
