Mail Order Scam

There is an old mail order scam that has been resurrected in the 21st Century. If you look closely at many of the small town newspapers you will see several ads in the Help Wanted section stating “Make Up To $1,000 a Week Working From Your Home Part-time”. When you contact the telephone number in the ad, you’ll call into a voice answering machine requiring that you leave your telephone number, name, and e-mail address. You are then contacted and given the following instructions via e-mail:

“The job we offer is dealing with mail.
  1. Receive the correspondence (i.e. check/goods/items) from our clients to your home address and ship it further according to our manager’s instructions;
  2. Report to our manager of every delivered parcel or of every received check (every candidate will be included in manager’s lists)
  3. Repack received items following the instructions our manager will send to you.
  4. Receive money from our company for shipping and payment for each shipped out package. Money transfer method described below. We offer $24 for each shipped out box and 5% of each Money Order. It would be better if you cash checks at a cashing location rather than a bank.
  5. Fill in the forms and papers as it will be shown in out manager’s instructions (you will receive an e-mail instruction for each box).
  6. Ship the package out using the specified shipping method (at this moment we mainly use EMS. Every USPS office can ship it with EMS Global Express/)
  7. Receive and cash Money Orders and Cashiers Checks.
  8. Transfer the money by Western Union to our company (our manager will give you the transfer address).
  9. Check your e-mail 5-6 times a day”
The preceding instructions were copied verbatim from an e-mail sent to an individual answering one of the newspaper ads. There are several red-flags that alerted the individual that his proposed employment was probably furthering criminal activities.

First, after the initial contact, the proposed employee was only to be contacted via e-mail.


Second, the job consisted of receiving goods mailed to their home, taking the goods out of their old boxes and putting them into new boxes; or taking off the old address labels and putting on new address labels; and/or cashing checks or money orders and buying new money orders with that money and shipping the money and boxes out.

Third, the proposed employee is discouraged from cashing the checks or money orders at a bank, but is instead encouraged to cash the check or money orders at a cashing location (i.e., a liquor store, grocery store, convenience store, or stand alone check cashing business).

Fourth, the “ship to” location is to another country such as Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia, Ethiopia, Croatia, Russia, Ukraine, or Romania.
What is actually happening seems to be the following. A criminal ring (2 or more people), go on-line and bid on goods from legitimate people from several of the on-line auction sites. When the criminals win the bids, they contact the seller through e-mail and offer to buy the goods with a money order or check that is for more than the amount requested.

They will offer several excuses that seem reasonable (i.e., I can only buy the money order or check in round hundred dollar amounts) to entice the seller into accepting this suspicious transaction. They will then ask the seller to ship the goods to an address (the prospective employee), along with a money order or check (sometimes in the name of the prospective employee, but also in the name of the company or person perpetuating the fraud) for the difference between the money order sent and the actual cost of the goods purchased (plus the shipping and handling charges). The on-line auction seller then ships the goods and new money order to the prospective employees address. The prospective employee then cashes the money order (in their name), buys a new money order (in their name), and ships it and the goods from their address. A couple of days later, the on-line seller learns that the money order they accepted is fraudulent and they contact the police. The police track the shipped goods to the prospective employee. The goods and money have already been shipped (usually overseas) and the only person the police have is the prospective employee.

Prospective employees in this scam can protect themselves by refusing to get involved. Refusing to allow their good names or addresses to be used in the above described manner can prevent the these criminals from perpetuating this type of fraud.


Check cashers can help protect themselves by understanding where they are involved in these types of transactions. The perpetrators encourage their patsy “employees” to take the money orders and checks to check cashers instead of banks. The main reason is the belief that a bank would ask more detailed questions about the transaction.

A check casher should also ask detailed questions about any suspicious transaction, including;
  1. Are you the person named on the check (require picture ID to prove it);
  2. What is the check for? (Especially if it’s not an easily identified social security check, paycheck, or income tax check.
  3. How long have you been working at the company?
  4. If the person cashing the check is not the person named on the check, ask why they are cashing it, and under what legal right are they cashing it?
Check cashers are reminded that they are not legally required to cash every check presented to them for payment. They are entitled to refuse to cash a check (any check) if they are uncomfortable with the perceived risk.