Online Scammers Special Reports
myfoxboston.com Friday, 15 May 2009Maria Stephanos
(myfoxboston) – You’ve seen the signs and read the ads: “Earn cash while working at home.”
Seems like an attractive option for those needing work, but beware. You actually might be helping an international crime ring steal millions, and even end up becoming a victim yourself.
The offers for jobs like envelope stuffing or medical billing are all parts of a complex puzzle that has millions of Americans helping crooks scam you out of your money every step of the way.
“I got an email thinking it was from a relative,” said Troy Massey. “It asked if I wanted to help out with a job, temporary, part-time at home where you will receive packages.”
Massey says the email said he could make money by “reshipping” the packages, which were brand-new Playstation 3s, valued at over $400.
“She sent another email, with a packaging label addressed to Vietnam, so they want us to take these packages, not open them, take the packages and send them to Vietnam,” says Massey.
After getting a number of Playstations, he started to grow suspicious and tried to return some of them, but the companies didn’t know what he was talking about, and neither did his cousin when he called her.
… “We’ve gotten a lot of calls from people who have gotten emails and it looks like its coming from a source they know and it’s really not,” Eric Friedman of Montgomery County Consumer Protection says.
Friedman says as more and more people lose their jobs and scramble for money, a record number are falling victim to “reshipping scams” and other “work-at-home schemes.”
“Unfortunately, legitimate work-at-home plans are few and far between,” Friedman says.
read article here… Online Scammers.
