Scam involving stolen goods leads to warning after a woman falls victim

 A woman who wishes to be known as Tracey from Geraldton, 400 kilometres north of Perth, was connected with a man earlier this year through an online dating site, she said that he sent her gifts on Valentine's Day and said "all the right things".

After being in contact for about a month, Tracey was asked to receive packages on behalf of the man, who claimed to be living in Sydney and working in Canberra.

She was asked to send the packages overseas to Bangkok.

The packages, were mostly contained expensive clothing and fashion goods, increased until Tracey was receiving an average of one delivery a day.

She  requested him to stop sending the parcels and he never took any notice of what  she said.

Tracey, 49, realised something was wrong when a shipping document showed some of the items were purchased by a credit card under her name though she never owned a credit card in her life according to her

Consumer Protection senior regional officer Danni Bloomfield said it appeared the items were purchased using stolen credit cards.

So it seems to be a concerning turn in relation to how scams are being operated.

There are also reports out of Karratha where a lady was receiving brand new laptops ... and there's also a report out of Albany where a lady was receiving similar packages to what Tracey's received in Geraldton."

Consumer Protection said overseas scammers used "mules" because Australian online retailers were less likely to and more cautious of shipping goods to overseas addresses.

Often, by the time a retailer realised they had been the victim of a credit card, the goods were already out of the country.

Tracey said she feel betrayed and had suffered trust issues following the scam.

source: ABC NEWS