NCJ Number
211681
Date Published
2004
Length
0 pages
Annotation
Intended for use with the general public in crime prevention education, this DVD dramatizes a "work-at-home" scam and the investigative techniques used to arrest the offender, followed by commentary and advice to viewers on how to avoid such scams.
Abstract
The scam involved an attractive online offer for making money by working at home. In this case, an innocent housewife was recruited to receive merchandise at her home address and then remail it to a post office box. Unknown to her, the merchandise had been illegally purchased through credit card fraud. Rather than receive the merchandise directly, the offender in effect incriminated the "at-home" worker as the recipient of the stolen merchandise under his scheme to have the merchandise rerouted to his post office box. In the dramatization, the "at-home" worker is arrested by postal inspectors after an investigation of the reported credit card fraud uncovered her address as the recipient of the stolen merchandise. Through her information, the post office box to which she sent the merchandise was staked out, and the offender was arrested when he came to pick up the merchandise. The commentator on the DVD advises viewers to carefully examine "work-at-home" offers; refuse to supply personal information to an unknown person or company; be suspicious of any offer that does not pay a regular salary or involves an overseas company; and obtain information on the company from Federal, local, and State consumer protection agencies.