Has anyone here ever heard of this company?

The most I can find out about it is that it is based in Switzerland. I haven't found any other information as far as it being a reputable company, as opposed to it being a scam.

They contacted me via email a couple of weeks ago about a job opportunity. I responded, wanting to know more about it, and today I got a job offer from them for a probationary period to see how I will work out.

Basically, the job is to be a personal shopper, but I'll be shipping the items I buy to clients outside the U.S. I'm not required to invest any of my own money. The pay has the potential to be really good, too.

It all sounds too good to be true, and this offer just landed in my lap. So, I'm sure you all can understand why I might be a bit wary that it is all really a scam.

Uh, Oh, that sounds scary! I'd be really careful...

They might want to get you to reveal your date of birth, social security number, etc., for identity theft, or it might be more complicated. They may send you a check that would more than cover the purchases, and tell you to deposit it in your bank account, then instruct you to pay for the items you are shipping to "customers" through your personal account. Since the check would be issued from Switzerland, it would take a long time to be revealed as fraudulent. So by the time you find out it's no good, you've already shipped the items to the "customers". And your account is overdrawn, because the company's check bounced.

I couldn't find any info on them on the net other than a physical address, a phone/fax number, and a few details about their function. Apparently they're registered as a joint stock company, and have been around since 1988. They do have a director and a handful of signatories, and a contact person, but there isn't any info on their industrial or business activities other than that they trade in agricultural products, and can buy and sell real estate.

If they're a company than they're probably LTD, but I can't find confirmation, although apparently there is a registration document online, available through one of the databases that has their info loaded. It's all in swedish though. I can't make heads nor tails of it. XD.

Nods it does sound scary.

I find it odd that they sent you an email considering that they don't have a registered website or an email address. The only person I can think of that could have sent it is their contact person, but then again I don't know officially. They could be a small company. I don't know if they trade internationally either.

Sorry.

~ Pyre

Wait... you have to ship stuff to clients outside the US?

I'm fairly sure you'd have to be under a contract of some sort to do that. It'd be classified as international trade, which would land you in certain tax brackets, having to register income with the local national tax authority being the IRS or similar, as that income would be sourced abroad rather than in the country where you live, which also involves being a tax resident of said country for a period of time too.

Note that I am not a US citizen, but I have a good understanding of accountancy.

I honestly don't know how you're going to verify this and that to be honest. It surprises me that CPS doesn't have an international contact person. I mean if they trade internationally, they would be hiring people outside SW to buy and trade on their behalf. It does sound a bit... I dunno, suspect.

I'd be suspicious too.

Pyreite, yeah, the information you found is about all that I found, too. Most of the websites I went to were in German, which doesn't surprise me.

They sent me several documents today that explain a little more about them and the job itself. They are based in Switzerland, but apparently have just recently opened an office in New York.

I'm not particularly worried about the idea that they initially emailed me. I have my resume on several job search sites, so it's not hard for potential employers to contact me. Looking at the address from the initial email for the job opportunity, it looks like it came from a third-party recruiter, not from the company itself. The actual job offer came from a contact person from CPS Trading, actually from the person who would be my manager if I accept the job.

I get the feeling that this company is technically small and that the majority of the "employees" are more like self-employed contractors. Annually, the company would send me a W-2 or a 1099 tax form, for me to file with my taxes. But, yeah, considering that the company is not a U.S. company, I do wonder about the technicalities with that.

Still, it's the whole sending stuff to clients outside the U.S. that really is the sticking point for me. According to the documents they sent me, the reason they have people buying items in the U.S. and shipping them to clients outside of the U.S. is because many of the clients want products from U.S. stores or websites that do not ship internationally. The orders typically are not big, so this company doesn't really have a need to buy wholesale from companies that would normally ship internationally.

Plus, there are all of the various taxes that go along with importing products that are supposedly avoided using this method of personal shoppers. That's the thing that really makes me nervous. It seems somewhat underhanded, like I'm smuggling contraband or something. But for all I know, it's perfectly legal.

True I could understand that too. Companies tend to diversify to minimise tax. It's not really tax evasion per se, not if it is perfectly legal. Hmm. Maybe you should talk to someone from customs, or the IRS? Or do you know of someone else that works as a personal shopper and does stuff like buy goods and ship internationally?

They'd be good for advice.

Snoop a bit before you act on it, even if the job is legit. Just to cover your own bases. Nods, it does sound rather odd though. The shipping and customs thing, especially going outside your own country can incur duty fees for the importer, unless I think they're a registered commercial entity focused on importing stuff. It'd be fairly obvious too to customs if the goods are going to the same address multiple times.

~ Pyre