The FBI and the US Postal Inspection Service seized 17 domains involved a large-scale scam operation that tricked victims into becoming money mules.

The malicious websites posed as recruiting portals for work-at-home jobs, where US citizens were tricked into receiving stolen goods or stolen money and asked to reship the products or funds to another address controlled by the scammers.

“Scammers tricked some job seekers into receiving stolen goods, merchandise or money often obtained via identity theft or credit card fraud and reshipping those items to another address controlled by the scammers. Many of these unsuspecting victims believed they were accepting jobs with a legitimate company and performing a legitimate job function. Others were told to make purchases with their personal credit cards that were not reimbursed,” the US Department of Justice said in a press release.

The victims photographed the packages they received, reshipped them to a different address as instructed, and received $20 for each processed item, the agency said.

The investigation into the fraud scheme began in February 2021 after the FBI's IC3 (Internet Crime Complaint Center) received 64 complaints about the scammers. The authorities said they discovered evidence suggesting that the malicious actors were located in Russia.