SAINT PAUL – Minnesota Commerce Commissioner Mike Rothman
is alerting Minnesotans to be on guard against a fraudulent employment offer
that claims to be from an insurance agency in the state.
In the past week, the Commerce Department has received
five complaints and inquiries from Minnesotans who were contacted, via email
and phone, by someone claiming to be with “Skyline Insurance” and offering a
job re-labeling and forwarding packages to other addresses. The job offer
promises as much as $3,500 per month for the work.
There is no insurance business licensed in Minnesota by
the name of Skyline Insurance. There is no Skyline Insurance located at the
physical address listed in the email, nor does anyone answer at the phone
number. The company’s purported federal employer identification number actually
belongs to eBay. The company’s website (skyline-ins.com) is fake, too, but with a minimal
amount of content to make it look like a legitimate insurance agency.
It is known as “reshipping” and often shows up as a “work
from home” opportunity posted on job boards, dating websites or chat rooms. In
reality, it is an attempt to lure unsuspecting individuals to participate in a
large-scale fraud scheme.
Criminals use stolen credit cards to buy high-priced
goods online and have them sent to the U.S. addresses of “reshipping mules,”
who repackage the stolen goods and mail it to overseas addresses. Not only do
the reshippers get pulled into a crime, they also typically never get paid and,
in fact, lose the money they spent on their own for the reshipping.
Sometimes the scam also involves the victim getting a
fake certified or regular check to deposit in their own bank account. They are
instructed to use some of it for postage but wire transfer most of it
elsewhere. When the bank determines the check is counterfeit or part of a
crime, the victim may end up responsible for the full amount of the check along
with any bank fees.
A recent study suggests that some 1.6 million credit and
debit cards are used to commit at least $1.8 billion in reshipping fraud each
year. Many online retailers have stopped allowing direct shipments from the
U.S. to Russia, eastern Europe and Africa, citing the high rate of fraudulent
transactions. As a result, criminals have resorted to reshipping schemes.
The Commerce Department offers the following tips to help
Minnesotans avoid getting lured into a reshipping scam:
Don’t accept or mail suspicious packages. No
legitimate business should ask you to accept packages at your address and
forward them someplace else, especially a foreign address.
Protect your money. Be suspicious if you are asked
to make any upfront payments, transfer money from your bank account or wire
transfer money for the “employer.”
Safeguard your information. Don’t give out any
sensitive personal or financial information that the scammers can exploit. Even
if they are not reshipping operators, they may be identity thieves.
Do some research. Simply looking at the company’s
website may not be enough because reshipping operators often set up websites
that can look legitimate. Check out the company with the Minnesota Commerce
Department or the Better Business Bureau.
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. An
offer to pay $3,500 per month simply to resend packages from your home doesn’t
pass the smell test.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service also provides advice aboutreshipping scam
