Package Chef Logistics LLC (PCL Post) – PackageChef.com
Hiring scam looking for work-from-home “Quality Control Inspector”
[Published 6/16/21] This article marks the 19th fake shipping business we’ve uncovered by a Russian-speaking criminal gang. These criminals hire people to repackage boxes of merchandise purchased with stolen credit card information in a “work-from-home” scam and then ship the merchandise to another location after stripping off ALL identifying labels/information from the original source. People are promised a salary of $2,000 – $3,000/month PLUS $40-$50 per box they can reship in 1 day. NO ONE GETS PAID! They get ghosted after 4-6 weeks, or however long the criminals can squeeze out of them for free mule labor.
On June 11, a woman contacted us to say she received a random email at the end of May inviting her to apply for a job as a Quality Control Manager for Package Chef Logistics. The email came from someone named “Haydee Olivera” and sent from the domain docksideway.com. The woman found the email and business to be sketchy at best and contacted us.
Though the domain docksideway.com was registered anonymously in July, 2020, there is no website configured for it. In fact, a visit to this domain shows a message in Russian that translates to: “Docksideway.com is not configured. For your site to appear here, you need to add it to the control panel in the “My Sites” section. If you have recently added a site to the control panel, wait 15 minutes and your site will start working.” The reason this message is in Russian is because it is sitting on a server in Kiev, Ukraine.
All of the fake websites used by this criminal gang are extremely similar, and some of them are practically identical! The essential scam is always the same. Let’s dig into the weeds and show you why Package Chef Logistics LLC (PCL Post) at PackageChef.com is a scam…
1. AGE OF THIS BUSINESS: According to their website, PackageChef.com has been in business “since 2020.” If that is the case, then how do they explain the fact that their business didn’t exist until it was registered in the state of Oregon on April 7 (according to OpenCorporates.com) AND their website didn’t exist until it was registered on May 19, 2021?! Don’t assume that if a business is “legally registered” that the business is real or legal! Neither is true about this fake company! (Also, notice the photo of the man in the screenshot below. These criminals love this stock image! It has appeared on more than a half-dozen of their websites.)
2. IDENTICAL TO PREVIOUS SCAM SHIPPING SITES: The website at PackageChef.com is IDENTICAL to several of the other websites used by these criminals, including SiteShipPost.com and WishDeliverys.com (which are still up and running on the Internet as of 6/13/21.) You can read our articles about Ship Site Post LLC here. The website was also identical to the business they called “Allmond Shippers” previously located at AllmondUSA.com. Now a visit to this website turns up Russian text (as of 6/15/21) saying that this website is no longer configured on their server. But you can read about this scam business at the bottom of our article here.
3. NO CREDIBILITY: Every business on the Internet wants to be promoted and have lots of attention paid to it! That’s one way businesses grow. But this is NEVER the case with these fake businesses! They specifically have code hidden in their pages that instruct Google NOT to follow them or keep information about them. When you try searching for these businesses you get NOTHING. If you use Firefox to search for the exact website name, Google will tell you that it sees there is a website by that name but it knows nothing about it!
4. FAKE PROFESSIONAL TEAM: These criminals always try to legitimize their websites by posting the faces and names of a “professional team.” In the past, we’ve always been able to show that the photos were stolen images of other people on the Internet, given new fake names. Now these criminals are more careful about the photos they find and steal. Though we cannot identify the REAL names behind these photos, we CAN say with certainty that the names under these photos are NOT REAL because we cannot find any of these people on the Internet, or on professional social networks like LinkedIn!
5. FAKE TESTIMONIALS: We’ve revealed several times in other articles that this photo of “Robert Peters” speaking on behalf of Package Chef Logistics, is actually a man named John Piters. Scroll down our article about Ship Site Post LLC to see more details about this fake review.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
Like all of the prior scam businesses, there are many other “tells” that inform us it is the same group of Russian-speaking criminals who’ve created this bogus company and are running the same scam. Read on to see some of these details….
a) These criminals use one domain for their website (packagechef.com) and another domain to send/receive emails to people. This domain for emails is called pclemail-usa.com. It was registered on May 24, 2021. You can see it used in this employment contract Digital Signature Request sent by oddo.atkins@pclemail-usa.com to a newly hired person recently.
Here is an email sent to a woman on June 9, inviting her to apply for the bogus position of “Quality Control Manager.”
On Wednesday, June 9, 2021, 10:37:48 AM EDT, Oddo Adkins <oddo.adkins@pclemail-usa.com> wrote:
Hi!
My name is Oddo Adkins Human resource manager at PCL (Package Chef Logistics).
You can find my contact information below:
Direct line: (503) 563-8372
Email: oddo.adkins@pclemail-usa.com
Please save my contact details and feel free to get in touch with me for any questions and concerns during your hiring process.
My business hours are 09:00AM-06:00PM EST Mon-Fri
Website : https://www.packagechef.com/
Job Details on this video : https://packagechef.com/video.html
Dashboard Manual : http://u.pc.cd/Bz7
Pick Up instructions: http://u.pc.cd/swYctalK
How to handle packs: http://u.pc.cd/zgditalK
W-4 Form: http://u.pc.cd/RPVctalK
JOB DESCRIPTION Quality Control Manager position.
* to check all items against the order slip / shipping label
* check products for any kind of damage
* Probably repack the items
The salary that we offer is fixed, its guaranteed and its paid monthly. $2500.00 per month + $50.00 bonus per package. Average monthly income $4200
I will be sending you your Electronic Employment Agreement via email.
You just need to click on “START SIGNING” to complete the document.
We will wait for your response. Thanks!
Kind regards,
Oddo Adkins | HR Department
Direct number: (503) 563-8372
Package Chef Logistics LLC
19730 NE Sandy Blvd BLDG F1 Portland, OR 97230
(855) 435-0805
Mon-Fri 09:00AM-06:00PM EST
Sat-Sun Closed
===========================================
b) Dashboard Login: This gang always uses a “dashboard” to communicate with their “mules.” They post information about the packages coming to them and new shipping labels to download. They expect the mules to upload photos of the shipments and report on the packages they receive. It looks very professionally crafted, like a real business! It is the same exact portal used in all of these scam businesses. Notice, too, that the dashboard uses a 3rd and different domain than the domains used for the website of the business or for sending/receiving emails. This domain is sgl-dash.com. It was registered on May 14, 2021.
c) Training video: These criminals almost always post a training video for their “mules” to review and learn about their new job. These videos have had content changed but are essentially the same and are ALWAYS animated! You’ll NEVER see a real person in these videos. The video for PackageChef.com was posted at packagechef.com/video.html
d) Employment Contract: To appear as a professional business, these criminals ALWAYS send an employment contract as a pdf file. It is full of legal jargon and can easily pass as a professionally crafted contract. However, we have NEVER found the Federal ID “EIN” numbers to be legitimate and ALWAYS find Russian language words hidden in the document behind-the-scenes details.
e) Credibility: People and Countries Served. This criminal group’s websites always like to boast about serving 20 countries and more than 1500 clients, etc. That’s pretty remarkable and total BS when you consider that they didn’t exist about 3 weeks ago!
IF YOU FELL FOR THIS SCAM AND ARE SHIPPING THEIR STOLEN MERCHANDISE, HERE IS OUR ADVICE:
- Collect evidence to give to the FBI. Document everything that happened to you, especially labels from where the packages have come and labels where you are sending the packages
- Hold onto the packages you have and STOP SHIPPING them! If necessary, do not accept any more packages and have them returned to the sender. Notify the senders that the merchandise was not purchased legally.
- Send an email to your “supervisor” and tell them you KNOW they are a scam and you have reported them to the FBI.
- CONTACT the nearest FBI office and give them all the evidence you have collected! Refer them to our articles about this scam operation.