I love gift wrapping. My dad is a bit of a freak about it and I think I followed in his footsteps. So imagine my excitement when I received an email from Best Buy telling me about a gift wrapping job opportunity available during the holiday season. Look, I’m unemployed…any opportunity involving something I like even a little bit excites me!
This email didn’t go into my spam box, but I wasn’t foolish enough to think “Richard Miller” was reaching out to me and only me. I am sure “Director of Communications” didn’t scream gift wrapper when he poached my email from some career website database. But I didn’t let it bring me down. It was the holidays and this seemed like a cool way to make some extra cash and kill some free time, so I emailed him back for some more info. “A new Best Buy just opened up in Jersey City,” I thought to myself. I know so many unemployed people, maybe we can do this together and make a thing of it!
How many of you are laughing at me right now? Don’t feel bad, because I’m laughing at myself as I write this. The email fails to send ( he had a Best Buy domain – I’m not that bad!), so I call the number Richard provided for me in his correspondence. I’m directly connected to “Welcome to HR department” and some elevator music. No Best Buy, not even the HR department, just HR Department. Now my senses are peaked. Could this be a scam?
I waited on hold for maybe 3 minutes. “Everyone probably got this email all at once,” I’m thinking. “The lines are bum-rushed.”
Finally, I throw in the towel, accepting defeat, realizing there is no Richard Miller, no Best Buy gift wrapping holiday temp job, just gullible me.
What I didn’t understand was what kind of scam this could be. Did they want to get my social security number or other personal information if I filled out a job application? Rob or carjack me when I showed up somewhere to wrap all these gifts? No, not even close. When I did a little research, I found out that this was a “wrap from home scheme.” What these people do is send you stolen merchandise and pay to have it shipped across the globe, then disappear and never pay you.
Usually I am smarter than this. Maybe I should lay off the egg nog! Happy holidays!
It's a Jersey Thing 