Avoiding Packaging Job Scams

A packaging job is a relatively simple work-from-home opportunity in which you have a number of items shipped to your house that you in turn package and ship off to their final recipients. The packages are usually small items or letters, and the postage on the envelopes or boxes used to ship them is typically prepaid. Unfortunately, some scam artists try to take advantage of people who are looking for packaging job opportunities by posting fake ads online in hopes of luring in victims.

Packaging job scams are usually designed to get money out of you in one way or another. Depending on how the scam is set up you may have to pay up-front to get your initial packaging kit or may be required to pay your own postage with promises of reimbursement later. In some cases the scammer may also send you a cashier’s check as payment and ask you to cash it and send a portion of the money to another individual via Western Union; the check is counterfeit, of course, and will leave you owing the full amount of the check to your bank once it bounces.

Avoiding these packaging job scams is largely a matter of learning how to recognize them for what they are. One key to recognizing scams is to be wary of ads that seem to promise a much higher income than you would expect from a packaging job. The scam ads often promise full-time work or high hourly wages to stuff envelopes or package items for shipping, which in most cases means that the company hiring you would be losing money since what they were paying you would cost more than the items themselves. Legitimate packaging jobs generally pay only a small amount per package, so any ad that promises high wages for low work volumes is likely a scam.

Even if you see a packaging job ad that seems legitimate it’s still important to keep your guard up against scams. The legitimate-sounding ad might result in you being asked to pay an up-front fee to cover the initial shipping for your workload, or you may be told that you need to subscribe to a website that lists the specific packaging job opportunities that you are eligible for. Remember that it shouldn’t cost you money to work, and once you pay for website access or shipping costs there is no guarantee that you’ll actually make any money (and if you do, it might not be enough to cover what you’ve already paid out.)

One final way to avoid packaging job scams is to find out more about both the company and how it operates. Ask questions about how you’ll be paid including how much, how often and whether you’ll receive a paycheck from the company or if you’ll be paid using another method such as PayPal. You can also do some research on the company online, including looking up Better Business Bureau reports that have been filed concerning the company and doing a search to see if there are any accusations of the company using scam-like tactics with other workers.