First, the international scammer hacked a business account and used it to buy a computer.
Then, he put up an ad, offering a “job opportunity” online to somebody who could pick up that computer in Laconia, New Hampshire, and ship it overseas.
Sounded good to Jennifer Wozmak. According to WMUR News, the New Hampshire woman answered the ad. Then, she did, in fact, pick up the fraudulently purchased laptop, promising to send it along.
The laptop would never make it, though – Wozmak sent a stack of old magazines in its place. She eventually turned herself in, telling police that she sold the computer and kept the money.
Now, having allegedly scammed the scammers, she’s facing charges.
WMUR quoted Wolfeboro, NH Police Chief Dean Rondeau, who said that this scenario happens a lot. People should stay away from these come-ons, he said:
What they want you to do is essentially be a straw man in a scam. They may wave money to pick up an item and move it to another location. Don’t do it.
The long and short of it is if you have any questions and you think something might not be legitimate, pick up your phone and call your local police department and ask to talk to an officer and he will help you work through that, there is no harm in that.
The chief didn’t have any advice for the scammer who got scammed, however. Perhaps “Nyah, nyah, nyah” would suffice?
Bear in mind that mule job offers like this are only one of a dizzying array of work-at-home job scams. Since the Better Business Bureau’s 2015 launch of its BBB Scam Tracker, more than 5,000 employment scams have been reported in the US and Canada.
To avoid getting caught in one of these scams – and to avoid the temptation to scam-’em-right-back and thus get yourself into a world of trouble like Wozmak’s facing – check out the Penny Hoarder for tips from the BBB on how to spot work-from-home scams.
Max
If she didn’t turn herself in, who would have ever known about it? I doubt the scammers would press charges ^^
Michael
Exactly, this article leaves some important items out. For example, why did she turn herself in? Did someone, had to be the scammer, report her?
Michael
Well reading the article from the original news source, even though it doesn’t outright say it she must have been tracked because the owner of the hacked account tracked the purchase and where it was shipped, and she likely was found because she had to show I.D. to pick it up.
Paul Ducklin
If she “turned herself in”, isn’t that an explanation in its own right? It happens. (If someone else reports you for a crime, causing you to be arrested, that’s “getting busted”, not “turning yourself in”.)
Max
I guess the question is rather why she turned herself in. Just a case of guilty conscience after the fact? Or was she pressured in some way by something else?
s31064
You never know. Think about it. Why would the police bother checking the account the laptop was purchased with? They have a receipt for the laptop and the “paper” trail leading to the purloined laptop’s thief. They’d probably need a second warrant to investigate how the laptop was originally purchased, and since the original thief came to them to report it, they wouldn’t expect that person to also be a thief.
Lisa Vaas
IIRC, it was the guy whose account got scammed to buy that laptop in the first place who reported it.