Question about scams on craigslist?

[235]

so i put a post on craigslist yesterday saying that i was looking for work. Nothing big, just yardwork, or cleaning, or whatever someone needed help with. I also put in the add to send me their phone number and id call them the same day. Ive gotten a few e mails saying they are paying $1,200 a month, or $500 a week, to have packages sent to my place, and im supposed to mail them. And to go buy clothing and other stuff, and they are paying me up front. I know its a scam, but how exactly does this scam work? And how are they actually gonna rip me off? anyone deal with these people before?

[Go with the flow]

Craigslist's new name = Scams List.
I hope you are wise enough not to go there again.
The scam involves the scammer using stolen credit card numbers.
He orders packages and has them mailed to your home.
He uses your name an address for the order.
You get the packages and mail them.

The payments you get will be fake. Cashier's checks.
They can clear your bank at first, but can bounce months later especially if they are out of the country (which most are).
The people that truly own the credit cards will start spotting this on their statements and file reports.
The police will show up at your door in about 3 weeks with handcuffs.
The police will arrest you, since no one could be naive enough to not understand they are involved in a simple scam.

Lesson: The internet, everyone out there, is out to scam you to death.
There are many better scams that you might not spot so easily.
Please, please, stay away from Craigslist for jobs.

[Angelica]

So the packages are sent to your home an then you are suppose to mail them out? Kinda like the middle man right? Well, Youll never know exactly how a scam works unless your the one who created it, But I would think the packages have stolen merch or narcotics in them. Nobody would be willing to pay that kind of money unless they were making double or triple off the deal. These people need innocent bystanders doing the dirty work for them. That way their hands are clean if something goes wrong. Its like a drug mule, The mule goes an picks it up, transports it, an then drops it off. If something happens in between they are the ones caught with the actual product and unless they can give names or some information linking the crime to someone else, their screwed.
Then again the offers you received could be genuine. These are just my thoughts and opinions. I would say if your interested just make sure you know what your getting into and that all your questions are answered before agreeing to anything.
I hope this helped and Good Luck!!

[Wayne Z]

The scam works like this.....

You receive items at your home. You are then told to ship them overseas.

Unfortunately......all of the items are purchased with stolen credit card numbers. When the scam unravels in a few days or weeks, the authorities then go to the one address that they have.......YOURS.

[Kittysue]

These are money laundering and reshipping scams that will land you in jail while the scammers profilt from it

Never put a work wanted ad on Craigslist - legitimate employers never look there and scammers target people who are desperate for money

The fake check scam is money laundering. They will send you a counterfeit check using a real company's name and account number so the check WILL clear. You are then asked to keep a % then send the rest to buy something through a fake website that only accepts Western Union or Moneygram. Three weeks later the check you deposited/cashed bounced and you owe your bank the full amount of the check, and you are investigated by the police for bank fraud for depositing/cashing a counterfeit check

In reshipping scams, the criminals buy items onilne with stolen credit cards and hacked Paypal accounts, have the packages sent to your home then have you ship to a third party, usually overseas. When the person whose money was stolen files a theft report the investigation can only lead to one place - your front door since the items were delivered to you. Along with these, the scammers will also send packages containing drugs for you to ship overseas. If they were doing anything legitimate they would not use you as a middleman - they would have the goods sent directly to the end customer OR they would have an account with Mail Boxes Etc to receive and reship the packages for only a $5 per package fee

NOBODY has random strangers they have never met in person handle packages or checks from home

[454]

100% scam.

There is no job.

There is only a scammer trying to steal your hard-earned money and maybe your freedom.

The next email will be from another of the scammer's fake names and free email addresses pretending to be the "assistant" and will demand you accept packages purchased with stolen credit cards, hi-jacked paypal accounts and spoofed bank transfers, at YOUR home address. Then you are suppose to use a stolen UPS/FedEx billing account number to send the electronics, clothing and jewelry overseas. When the websites, credit card/paypal/bank account owners and UPS/FedEx discover the fraud, you get the real life job of paying back ALL of them. Then the local law enforcement comes knocking asking why are you fencing stolen merchandise for someone you never met, don't know their real life name and have no idea in what country they really live.

Another email will be from the scammer and will demand you cash a large fake check sent on a stolen UPS/FedEx billing account number and send most of the money via Western Union or moneygram back to the scammer posing as the "supply company" while you "keep" a portion of the cash. When your bank realizes the check is fake and it bounces, you get the real life job of paying back the bank for the bounced check fees and all the bank's money you sent to an overseas criminal.

Western Union and moneygram do not verify anything on the form the sender fills out, not the name, not the street address, not the country, not even the gender of the receiver, it all means absolutely nothing. The clerk will not bother to check ID and will simply hand off your cash to whomever walks in the door with the MTCN# and question/answer. Neither company will tell the sender who picked up the cash, at what store location or even in what country your money walked out the door. Neither company has any kind of refund policy, money sent is money gone forever.

Now that you have responded to a scammer, you are on his 'potential sucker' list, he will try again to separate you from your cash. He will send you more emails from his other free email addresses using another of his fake names with all kinds of stories of being the perfect buyer, great jobs, lottery winnings, millions in the bank and desperate, lonely, sexy singles. He will sell your email address to all his scamming buddies who will also send you dozens of fake emails all with the exact same goal, you sending them your cash via Western Union or moneygram.

You could post up the email address and the emails themselves that the scammer is using, it will help make your post more googlable for other suspicious potential victims to find when looking for information.

Do you know how to check the header of a received email? If not, you could google for information. Being able to read the header to determine the geographic location an email originated from will help you weed out the most obvious scams and scammers. Then delete and block that scammer. Don't bother to tell him that you know he is a scammer, it isn't worth your effort. He has one job in life, convincing victims to send him their hard-earned cash.

Whenever suspicious or just plain curious, google everything, website addresses, names used, companies mentioned, phone numbers given, all email addresses, even partial sentences from the emails as you might be unpleasantly surprised at what you find already posted online. You can also post/ask here and every scam-warner-anti-fraud-busting site you can find before taking a chance and losing money to a scammer.

6 "Rules to follow" to avoid most fake jobs:
1) Job asks you to use your personal bank/paypal account and/or open a new one.
2) Job asks you to print/mail/cash a check or money order.
3) Job asks you to use Western Union or moneygram in any capacity.
4) Job asks you to accept packages and re-ship them on to anyone.
5) Job asks you to pay visas, travel fees via Western Union or moneygram.
6) Job asks you to sign up for a credit reporting or identity verification site.

Avoiding all jobs that mention any of the above listed 'red flags' and you will miss nearly all fake jobs. Only scammers ask you to do any of the above. No. Exceptions. Ever. For any reason.

If you google "fake re-shipping job", "fraud money mule scam", or something similar you will find hundreds of posts from victims and near victims of this type of scam.