Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
- Cathy Junior, a Salt Lake City resident, fell victim to a reshipping scam.
- She lost $3,200 after paying shipping costs and buying electronics, expecting reimbursement.
- The Federal Trade Commission advises victims to stop communication and report to authorities.
SALT LAKE CITY — If you step into Cathy Junior's small Salt Lake City apartment, you'll find that she has quite the office going on — crowded with empty shipping boxes.
She has been receiving items such as smartphones, computer processors and other electronics in the mail. Her job was to repackage those items and then ship them off. It's a gig she found when searching online for a work-from-home job.
"What they said is after the 30 days, they would get a credit card for me to use that was a corporate card," Junior said.
In the meantime, Junior paid the shipping costs using her own credit card. She was also enticed to buy a couple of the items that she was shipping away.
"I bought an ... Apple Watch and an iPad that was about $1,973," she said. "I shipped those away."
"With the understanding being you'd be reimbursed," I asked.
"Yes," she answered.
It was when neither the reimbursement nor the paycheck showed up that I got her call.
"How much money did you lose?" I asked Junior.
"About $3,200," she replied.
Junior is a victim of what's called a "reshipping" scam, or a "money mule" scam. She has been an unwitting accomplice in a criminal operation, essentially acting as a middleman. In addition to the money she lost, the items she shipped are most likely items purchased with stolen credit cards. That could put her at risk of getting arrested for shipping stolen property.
"How do you feel?" I asked her.
"Cheated. Humiliated," she answered.
She knows her money is gone. And she is looking past her embarrassment hoping that doing so will help others.
"I called you because I felt like people need to know," she said.
The Federal Trade Commission says this is a very common con and that anyone involved should cease communication with the scammer immediately and report the incident to law enforcement.
