At best these are cheesy drop shippers. You might remember the ads on TV a few years back on becoming an internet store without inventory, etc. They would interview people who they claimed made thousands in sales ‘while in their underwear’, and show quick shots of the items companies would have in stock for you to sell. Invariably those items were jewelry, handbags, etc.
The companies were legit, but the simple fact was that you were competing with hundreds of people with identically designed websites with the same exact crap. When these things first came to light many folks quickly discovered that and ran around trade shows hoping to find companies that would drop ship so they would have something different than the other guy. They were almost as annoying as the fake reviewer/reporter types.
Those ads seem to be gone now. So I suspect if these companies are legit they are simply trying to mass market by email to get more seller of their stuff.
Some may ask ‘why are they adding another layer to their sales?’ Because marketing on retail level, keeping track of sales, and all the other stuff involved is a whole 'nother business and they may just not want to get involved with that. Plus, why have your own efforts when you can have potentially hundreds of suckers drooling at a lousy 25% margin and doing the marketing work for you. That way these folks can concentrate on maintaining inventory at the cheapest levels while letting others do their hard work for them.
I wouldn’t make too much of this company not showing up on Google. A lot of wholesalers, particularly ones with no-name inventory, don’t want to show up that way and opt out of google searches. It saves them the hassle.
There is still a chance that this is a scam, but most likely it is just a bid for low-margin distributors.
The standard of written English is dreadful. Not necessarily a terrible thing on its own, but in the presence of several other dodgy factors, raises another orange flag. The website says “Welcome to our company!” What
Worse though, googling “warehousein.us” returns a) their website, and b) this thread.
Finally, there is no Whois data that I can find. Legitimate companies almost always have an address and technical contact associated with their domain name.
If you read something, especially a job ad, and think to yourself, “This seems like it could be a scam…I wonder what this is all about?” then it is not worth your time and you need to move on. I don’t care how badly you might need a job. I don’t care how much money you could make if it turns out to be legit. I don’t care if your brother-in-law sent it to you and totally promises that it is a real opportunity to make some money. You have gut insticts for a reason and your gut instincts are telling you there is something wrong with this job. Don’t even consider signing up for this.
Hmmm, seems like the WarehouseIn team are exactly the same people who work over at the Institute of Physics in the UK. Not sure how the CEO of one can be the group publisher of the other… Busy lady.
I agree with that comment about their grammar. #2 in the FAQ is “How it works?”
Oddly enough that is also the first question they answer. They skipped #1, “Who is WareHouseIn.us?” Maybe they don’t know who their CEO is. Maybe it’s Keyser Soze! :eek:
I think this is a variation of a scam I fell for earlier in the year. Basically company X steals people’s credit card numbers, buys stuff, and uses poor unemployed schmuck (me), to print out shipping paperwork and ship packages. By the 3rd iPod to be sent to Russia, I clued in.
Thanks to those who contacted us at Physics World.
I’d just like to confirm that the warehousein.us site and organisation is nothing whatsoever to do with Physics World, IOP Publishing or any the team shown on the site. Neither is Chris Thomas, the name given in the original email on this thread, the Hiring Manager or otherwise for WarehouseIn!
Our legal team have contacted the domain name registered owner asking them to remove pictures and references to our staff immediately.
They might be showing up in Google searches soon, now that they have been brought to the attention of the Clark Howard site and several other consumer complaint sites.
I do a lot of job searching online, and my rule of thumb for legit job is, is there an actual JOB in there somewhere? If I go through the whole ad and there isn’t any mention of a job title, it’s crap. This email doesn’t pass my test. It’s either a marketing/sales/sleazy job or a scam.
