Sheriff warns of fake home shipping jobs

original article here : http://www.hutchnews.com/news/local_sta ... 5935a.html

Posted: Friday, January 9, 2015 8:00 pm
By Ken Stephens The Hutchinson News [email protected]
Ken Stephens
Posted on Jan 9, 2015by Ken Stephens
The Reno County Sheriff’s Office is warning area residents about a work-at-home job scam leading to identity theft.

The jobs involve receiving products via mail, inspecting the products and then reshipping them with the company’s shipping label to a new destination provided by the company. The scammers usually say they found your resume on a jobs website, according to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which also has issued nationwide warnings about the scam.

“The company is using stolen credit cards to purchase these items,” the sheriff’s post said. “After the company is done using you for a month or so they change names and will steal your identity by using your personal information you gave them to start the job. We have had two different people in our county acting as the ‘shipper’ for this company. The two companies’ names are US Logistics LLC and International Distribution Company.”

A company with a very similar name, International Distribution Corp. in Pasadena, Texas, said on its Facebook page that it has received numerous emails and messages saying that a company is searching for people to take a “logistics position” on CareerBuilder.com. “It names a different contact person each time,” International Distribution Corp. said. “The company is listed as International Distribution Co. We are International Distribution Corporation and are not affiliated with this company. We are sorry this has happened.”
The Postal Inspection Service website says that the scammers sometimes advertise the jobs as “merchandising managing” or “package processing assistant.”

“The real story? It’s a scam,” the Postal Inspection Service says.

The merchandise you receive and reship is often bought with stolen credit cards, and the scammer uses you to smuggle the goods out of the country, the service said. When you receive payment for your work, the check or money order is usually counterfeit, the service said.

And sometimes your identity is stolen by having you fill out a job application with your Social Security number and other information.