Work at home scams have been part of the arsenal of scammers for many years and with good reason.  They work – at least for the scammer.  Recently there has been an upsurge of work at home scams, many of which appear on line on sites such as Craigslist where you may find such scams listed seeking people to work in merchandising or processing.  The job is said to entail receiving packages or money orders and then repackaging them and sending them to another address, often in a foreign country.  You get paid by way of a certified check which you deposit, keep the amount that represents your fee and wire the remainder back.  The problem is, as I have indicated many times previously, the “certified” check you receive is a phony.  Some people who think they are prudent wait a few days for the check to clear before sending the requested money from their account only to learn when the check ultimately bounces that they only received provisional credit from their bank and once the check is found to be counterfeit, the full amount of the check funds are withdrawn from the account by the bank and you are left having sent your own money to the scammer.

TIP

These type of repackaging jobs are scams.  Don’t get involved.  Anytime you are given a certified check, contact the issuing bank to confirm it is legitimate and don’t consider the money yours until the check has fully cleared.