I recieved a call from someone at the "Federal Chamber of Commerce". They said that they had found my resume on Monster.com, and were wondering if I was interested in an e-commerce position. I said yes and an appointment was scheduled.
Now here was my first red flag. The "interview" was to take place at a hotel on a Friday night. But when asked, the FCC rep said that they were in the process of moving their office, so it seemed to make a bit more sense.
I decided to check out their website, and another red flag popped up. The address is www.federalchamber.net — any governmental agency's site ends in. Gov. The site seemed to sell supplmental insurance and other "benefits" in a $30/month package. It struck me as strange that a governmental agency would be in this line of business.
Despite my hesitations, I headed to the interview anyway, since I was looking for work at the time. The "interview" was actually in one of the ballrooms of the hotel — I was starting to get a bad feeling. Almost right away, the FCC rep who initally contacted me started asking questions.
At first, the queries were normal interview stuff, but then they started getting strange ("Do you have a pet?" "What's your favorite movie?"). I noticed the rep was taking a large amount of notes about anything I said that said things like "seems hesitant". During this time, another FCC rep came next to us and just stood there; it felt uncomfortable.
Next, the group (the majority of which were already working for FCC) went into the ballroom and the schill began. The speaker (Buck something or other) glossed over the fact that FCC was not affiliated with the government. He then began tooting the comapny's horn. It did seem to offer good services to its' clients.
But FCC doesn't seem to be into selling those benefits. The whole push was for the "potential employees" was to pay $199 (with a "money back guarantee" as Buck screamed several times) along with about $200 more in "membership fees" to attend a "training weekend". They also wanted you to bring in two friends, and even gave you a script to do so with.
Once Buck mentioned money, I knew that this was a scam. This feeling was only bolsted by the strange behavior of the FCC reps, who would laugh just a bit too much at Buck's "jokes". I was literally sandwiched between two of them and they looked almost brainwashed to me.
The "informational meeting" was going on for more than two hours (actually closer to three counting the "interview" — I was initally told it would take about an hour) before I decided to leave. When I got to the door, one of the FCC reps actually tried to physically block me and others around me were shooting dirty looks in my direction.
Afterwards, I did some checking on the internet (something I should have done in the first place) and FCC is being investigated by the Federal Trade Commission. It seems as if they call businesses pretending to be the local chamber of commerce and then just send them bills.
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