Delta Shipping Tape Scam

John Coogan shares a story about working briefly at a telemarketing scam operation that sold overpriced packing tape.

"I found the job on Craigslist. I showed up wearing a suit at 17 years old with a resume, and they said 'It's not that type of job.' They had me sit down and call numbers from a list with a specific script.

When someone picked up, you'd say 'Shipping department please' - making it sound like you'd been disconnected. Half the time people would say 'What are you talking about?' but the other half would transfer you to shipping. Once you got to shipping, you'd say 'Hey, you guys are still using the 2-inch clear tape, right?' - which every shipping department uses.

After they said yes, you'd tell them 'I want to send out another box of that tape and throw in a Starbucks gift card for you personally.' They'd send the tape with an invoice priced at $500 - just low enough that accounting departments would stamp it without question. The tape cost them $5 to produce and was such poor quality that even their own shipping department wouldn't use it.

The company was making millions - the guys were driving around in sports cars. I only worked there one day before quitting because I realized it was a scam. I ran into someone who worked there a year later at a concert, and he told me they fire everyone every 3 months because once people figure out it's a scam, they tell others and the whole operation falls apart."