What to know about ‘reshipping fraud,’ and how to catch it

CHARLOTTE — Ivy Bynum told Action 9′s Jason Stoogenke she found a job online, making shipments.

She says the scammer sent her packages of valuable items, including iPad minis, iPhones, binoculars, and watches. The con artist instructed her to change the labels and send them off again.

“Take it to the UPS or FedEx or post office and ship them back out,” she said.

She says the job was supposed to pay her $3,300, but it never did.

“It sounds too good to be true and actually it was,” she said.

The U.S. Postal Service calls this con “reshipping fraud.”

It says, “The scam begins when criminals buy high-dollar merchandise -- such as computers, cameras, and other electronics -- via the Internet using stolen credit cards. They have the merchandise shipped to addresses in the United States of paid ‘reshippers.’”

In other words, the scammers are shipping items and they want to erase the paper trail, making their illegally bought goods harder to trace. So they use the reshippers to help with that.

Action 9′s advice is this:

• Never give out personal information to someone you don’t know.
• Be suspicious of any offer you find online, overseas or not, that doesn’t pay a regular salary.
• You can always ask the BBB, FTC, or your state’s consumer protection agency if they’ve had a problem with the business.

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Action 9: How to prevent senior credit card fraud

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