The Reshipping Scam: How a Work-from-Home Job Can Make You an Unwitting Criminal

You see an online ad for a flexible work-from-home position. A company needs someone to receive packages, inspect them, and forward them to an overseas address. The pay is good, the hours are easy, and you never have to talk to customers. It sounds perfect for a middle-aged professional looking for extra income or a change of pace. But what you are really signing up for is a felony.

Reshipping scams are one of the most insidious employment frauds targeting Americans aged 45 to 64. Criminals use stolen credit cards to buy high-value electronics, luxury goods, or clothing from US merchants. They need a domestic address to receive the merchandise before smuggling it abroad. That is where you come in. You get hired as a “merchandise handler,“ “supply chain assistant,“ or “quality control inspector.“ Your job is simple: take delivery of the packages, remove any invoices, relabel them, and ship them to an address in China, Nigeria, Russia, or another country. In return, you receive a salary or commission, often paid via wire transfer or reloadable prepaid cards.

The scam works because legitimate retailers often block international shipments on large orders. They also flag credit card purchases shipped to a different country as fraud. By using a US resident as a middleman, the criminals bypass these security checks. You, the employee, become the patsy. The merchandise is fraudulently obtained, and your address is the trail that leads back to you.

Victims are recruited through job boards like Indeed, Craigslist, or LinkedIn, as well as social media ads. The job listing rarely mentions reshipping by name. Instead, it uses vague language such as “logistics coordinator,“ “package handler,“ or “e-commerce assistant.“ The hiring process is fast and impersonal—often just a text or email exchange, no video interview. They may send you a check to buy shipping supplies, which is itself a fake check that your bank will later demand you repay. They ask for your full name, address, and sometimes a copy of your driver’s license, which they can then use for identity theft.

Once you start, you may feel something is off. The packages come from well-known retailers like Best Buy, Apple, or Nordstrom. The labels have different names and addresses. The instructions tell you to never open the original packaging and to remove any paperwork. But by then, you are already receiving stolen goods. Law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and US Postal Inspection Service, treat reshipping as mail fraud and money laundering. If you are caught, you face federal charges, fines, and prison time—even if you were unaware of the scam. Ignorance is not a legal defense. Prosecutors will argue that reasonable suspicion should have stopped you when the job required shipping products overseas, paying you unusually high commissions, or hiding the identity of the sender.

Middle-class Americans are prime targets because they have stable addresses, clean credit histories, and are often looking for legitimate remote work. The criminals know that people in their late 40s or 50s are less likely to question a straightforward task that pays well. They also count on your good faith—the belief that a company that sends you packages must be legitimate. This scam has grown rapidly in recent years, costing retailers billions and ruining the lives of unwitting workers.

How do you spot it? First, any job that involves receiving and reshipping packages for a foreign company is almost always a scam. Legitimate logistics companies handle their own warehousing. They do not hire random individuals to act as drop points. Second, be suspicious of any job that offers to pay you a percentage of the value of the goods you ship. That is a classic mark of a fencing operation. Third, if the employer refuses to do a video interview, has no verifiable physical address, or communicates only through encrypted messaging apps, stop all contact. Fourth, if they send you a check before you have done any work, it is counterfeit. Do not deposit it.

If you have already fallen for a reshipping scam, stop immediately. Do not send any more packages. Contact the US Postal Inspection Service or the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center. You should also freeze your credit and monitor your bank accounts, because the scammers now have your personal information. Do not try to negotiate with them; they will only threaten you or try to drag you deeper.

The core truth is simple: any work-from-home job that asks you to receive and reship merchandise is not a job. It is a crime. Protect yourself by remembering that if the work sounds too easy and the pay too generous, you are not the employee—you are the mule. Stay skeptical, check the company’s registration with your state’s secretary of state, and never let desperation override your common sense.