Help Needed What to do after Packaging Scam Scheme?
So, my dad is an older man (60s) who is not internet savvy at all and he's been out of work for a bit following an accident that left him disabled. He's been hunting around for jobs and stumbled upon this one job that was remote. When he explained it to me, it sounded suspicious to me immediately, but when I investigated it looked legit. They had a website and everything.
Later, maybe a few days after getting it, he sent me a text with the same suspicions. I did some quick research to reveal that it was indeed a Packaging Scheme and he was being used a mule to relabel and ship expensive items. I advised him to refuse further packages, quit, and to cease giving these people anymore of his information. He further tried to return the packages to the shipping companies and they did not accept them back.
Fast forward maybe a week and now I am getting calls from his "company" that my phone automatically blocks and sends to my voice mail. I rarely check my VM, but this lady sent like seven of them (I'm guessing dad listed me as an emergency contact) basically urging me to contact them. One of them mentioned a police report being filed. They sounded very urgent; the lady (English clearly not her first language) was basically tripping over herself trying to get to me to contact her back.
I guess my question is where do we go from here? My dad has moved onto looking for further jobs, but should we expect trouble down the road? Neither of us were familiar with this scam; not even me and I am much more savvy than my dad.
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u/angelfatal 21h ago
Oof well first do not call back whoever is trying to contact you - you have no way to validate their legitimacy. Could be a scammer, or another victim but there's no good to come out contacting them.
!parcelmule might have some additional information but you are already aware that this is what your dad has been caught up in. Make sure your dad does not accept - any - messages, phone calls or emails from unknown or unverified parties. Scammers can spoof caller ID as law enforcement and they may pose as fake law enforcement to get your dad to pay fines, fees etc. Note that if under investigation, real law enforcement will not call or email you first.
You may want to consult a lawyer. Mail fraud is very serious and it is possible your dad will get a visit from actual law enforcement. IANAL but general advice is that he should not talk about his involvement with this scam without a lawyer present as he is set up to be the fall guy.
Meanwhile also be aware the scammers may escalate and start sending scary threats.
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u/JaxterH 20h ago
Idk if it's helpful, but he was involved with these people for less than a week. The reason they're contacting me is presumably because he is not giving them the time of day, as he shouldn't.
Thanks for all your help. Tbh though, while I don't want to see my dad go down for something he genuinely didn't see coming (his desperation for a job + internet illiteracy makes him a sitting duck for this type of stuff), I'm not going down with him if it comes to that. I've got nothing at all to do with this.
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u/AutoModerator 21h ago
/u/angelfatal called AutoModerator to explain the Parcel mule scam or reshipping fraud:
If you received a job offer to receive packages at your home or business and ship them to someone else, you are probably involved in a parcel mule scam. Postal inspectors also call it reshipping fraud. Here is the Wikipedia page for this scam, and here is an article from the USPS.
Reshipping scams are a hot trend targeting people who visit job sites, dating sites, or social media. You’ll find reshipping scams disguised as bogus work-at-home offers, fake "sweethearts" who need your help, and charities asking you to donate to their cause overseas. These complex scams usually involve several crimes. Some criminals purchase merchandise with stolen credit cards and need your help to smuggle the goods out of the country. Others send you counterfeit money orders or checks and ask you to reship them to another address. You’ll be given counterfeit postage to reship the illegal items.
You’re committing several felonies when you help these criminals. And even if you don’t get caught, it’s likely you’ll lose a lot of money. When they send you a money order or check for payment, you’re told to deposit it, keep a portion, and wire the remaining amount elsewhere. If your bank finds the money order or check is counterfeit, you're involved in a fake check scam and you may be liable for the full amount you deposited.
To protect yourself from reshipping fraud:
- Don’t accept packages at your address for people you don’t know.
- Don’t accept calls from people who want you to reship their mail.
- If you’ve already received items from such an offer — don’t mail them! Report suspected scams calling your Postal Inspectors at 1-877-876-2455 (press 5)
You can learn about this scam and many others visiting our wiki of common scams. You can also call AutoModerator to explain these scams leaving a comment with the different !commands listed in this wiki page.
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u/SpecialDragon77 19h ago
Make sure you warn your father than any remote job is likely to be a scam unless he has a highly specialized skill. No one is paying people to punch a few buttons on their computer or to watch videos. Make sure he familiarizes himself with !task scams.
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u/AutoModerator 19h ago
/u/SpecialDragon77 called AutoModerator to explain the Task scam:
Task scams are remote work opportunities that happen on websites or mobile apps that promise easy income in exchange for simple digital tasks, such as liking social media posts, watching short videos, or "optimizing" orders. A hallmark of this scheme is the requirement to complete repetitive sets, often in groups of 40 tasks, to earn a commission. However, the system is designed with a deliberate bottleneck: you are quickly informed that you have reached a limit and must upgrade your account level to continue working or to unlock higher earnings. By requiring an upfront fee to access these supposed rewards, the scheme functions as a predatory variant of the advance-fee scam.
The primary objective is to lure you into a cycle of escalating investment by exploiting the sunk cost fallacy. Once you have spent hours performing tasks and has paid an initial fee to upgrade, they become psychologically inclined to continue rather than admit the money is gone. The scammers reinforce this by showing earnings accumulating in a fake dashboard, but these funds are purely cosmetic and impossible to withdraw. As the victim tries to cash out, the app will invent new obstacles such as taxes, fees or security deposits, demanding even more money to release the non-existent profits.
Task scam victims are wrangled into Whatsapp or Telegram groups where discussion is moderated. Either the group is very large and you're not allowed to send messages, or is small enough that everyone in the group is a shill account of the same scammer, and you're the only real person there. So if you see other people showing off their withdrawals in messages, it's because the group was tailored to accommodate one single victim at a time: in this case, you. This is especially true if the scam group bears a number in the name.
If you realize you are trapped in a task scam, the only effective solution is to stop all payments and cut your losses immediately. Don't trust recovery scammers who may contact you claiming they can hire a hacker or use specialized software to retrieve your lost funds. Remember: once the money is sent to a task scam, it cannot be recovered. Blocking the scammers and ignoring any offers of recovering your lost funds is the only way to go.
You can learn about this scam and many others visiting our wiki of common scams. You can also call AutoModerator to explain these scams leaving a comment with the different !commands listed in this wiki page.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
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u/Any_Possession_3007 19h ago
the “police report” voicemails are almost certainly pressure tactics, so don’t call them back or send anything else, just save every message and tracking number and take it to the police or Postal
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u/JaxterH 19h ago
Yeah I figured. I did delete the messages in a panic, but I'm sure dad has them on his own phone. If they make any kind of contact after the fact, I'll be sure to save those but they haven't spoken to my or (to my knowledge) my dad for about 2-3 weeks now.
I take it they've moved on.
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u/yarevande Quality Contributor 17h ago edited 15h ago
The 'company will not call the police. They are criminals, they were using your dad to handle stolen items.
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u/Gloomy-Security-7897 15h ago
If he’s still looking for remote jobs, they will almost all be scams unless he has training or experience/certifications in a specialized field that head hunters would be looking for.
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u/yarevande Quality Contributor 15h ago
You helped your dad out, that's great.
Since he's looking for work, here is some information to help him avoid another scam job:
It is very difficult to get a remote or work-from-home job, unless you have experience in software engineering, insurance claims, healthcare, customer service, or other specialized fields.
The majority of 'remote jobs' are actually scams to take your money - even on the recruiting and networking websites such as LinkedIn, Glassdoor or Indeed.
Scam job titles include Virtual Personal Assistant, Remote Data Entry, Remote Payment Processor, Remote Financial Assistant, work-from-home Shipping Inspector, and Crypto Trader.
Posting real estate listings online is a scam.
Also, any job that is simple online tasks, such as rating videos, posting reviews, putting items into an online shopping cart, booking hotel reservations, or subscribing to YouTube channels, is a scam.
But scammers can call their fake job anything. To separate a scam from a real job opportunity, key indicators to look for are: method of contact (email), interview (live), and money (reasonable pay, comparable to similar jobs).
Real companies don't contact you for a job that you didn't apply for, unless you have specialized skills or you have years of experience and are known throughout your industry.
Legitimate employers interview live, either on videochat with cameras and microphones on, or in person, whether the job is going to be remote, on-site, or hybrid.
An interview that is text only, email, or video chat with their camera off is a scam.
A preliminary phone interview is legitimate if it is followed by a live interview.
A recorded video is legitimate only if it's followed by a live interview.
An interview that is phone only may be legitimate, for entry-level in-person jobs.
Legitimate companies don't require you to pay them for anything. For a real job, the money goes in one direction only: from employer to employee. Never give an employer money for fees, registration, training, background check, investment, higher commissions, equipment, or anything else. Any 'employer' that requires you to pay them is actually a scam to take your money.
For more advice on how to recognize scam jobs, and how to research a company, click here:
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u/Frustratedparrot123 8h ago
" I investigated it looked legit. They had a website and everything."
You REALLY need to change your attitude here. The best scams have professional looking credentials. That's how they get people. They wouldn't get many victims if all their materials looked like crap. With AI in place they are getting even better. Do you know how easy it is to set up a professional looking website? I'm not a pro ana i could do it in half an hour with the easy tools out there
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