LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Better Business Bureau (BBB) serving Louisville, southern Indiana and western Kentucky has issued a fraud warning of an employment scam.
The warning was issued for a supposed Louisville-based organization calling itself, Century Post. The BBB says the organization claims to be a logistics company offering listings for work-from-positions that involve receiving and reshipping packages. Listings for the scam were found on job searching websites like Indeed and Monster.
Multiple individuals have reported to BBB that after accepting a position with Century Post, they were required to submit paperwork containing personal information and have never received payment from the company.
"There were several people who have reported the Century Post scam and what they have done is give their personal information," President and CEO of BBB Louisville, Reanna Smith-Hamblin, said. "They thought they had a job putting together packages, gave their information, and now they have been scammed."
BBB Louisville says in many cases, reshipping scams involve purchases made using stolen credit cards. Job applicants are often unaware that once accepting a “position,” they actually are assisting in reshipping stolen merchandise, and they will never receive a paycheck for their work.
"The problem is it is fraud," Smith-Hamblin said. "You are actually taking part in fraud and these items are being sold on the black market."
Additionally, there is the potential for job applicants to become victims of identity theft since they submit personal information such as social security numbers under the guise of completing new hire paperwork.
The BBB gives steps you can take to protect yourself from a reshipping employment scam:
- If you come across a reshipping job listing (also sometimes listed as “package handler” or “package inspector”), report the suspected scam to the United States Postal Inspection Service and to BBB’s Scam Tracker.
- If the job listing appears on a third-party employment site such as Indeed.com or Monster.com, report the listing as a scam to the site.
- Do not accept packages at your home address from people you do not know.
- Do not accept phone calls or respond to messages from people wanting you to reship their mail.
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