Most of us would love to have an easy way to earn some extra money on the side. But that desire for extra cash is luring an increasing number of people into an international scam of enormous proportions. Carla Workman is one of them.
"I was looking for a part-time job to fill in for the income I was earning already to sort of make ends meet," she said.
Workman went online, found a job site that looked reputable and sent an application. She was offered a package management position paying up to $1,200 a month.
She explained what she needed to do: "Go to BestBuy and pick up an iPad. They had already purchased it or paid for it. I just needed to go pick it up. I was to print out the labels, mailing labels and was supposed to send it out."
After the initial pick-up, packages just started coming to Workman's home. It wasn't what she expected, but again, it was easy.
"Everything was delivered by mail and then from there I would take the packages, open them, inspect them, take the label off and put the new one on," Workman said.
But when she started sending packages to Russia, she became suspicious.
She questioned, "Is this legitimate? What's going on? When am I going to be paid for what I've done before?"
Her gut was right. A clerk at the post office told her she was likely caught in the middle of a re-shipping scheme.
"I felt used," said Workman. "I trusted them and thought it was a legitimate business."
"What they are doing is they are purchasing items with stolen credit cards and having them sent to your house," said U.S. Postal Inspector Stephen Danson.
As more and more people search for ways to earn some extra income, postal inspectors say the re-shipping scam is luring in an increasing number of unsuspecting victims.
"I have had victims who are excited about this kind of a job. They were excited it was something they can do, then they find out and their hopes are dashed," said Danson.
Postal inspectors recommend you do a thorough background check on any company you plan to work for. Check with the Better Business Bureau.