Thought I would enlighten you about this. I, recently, fell for what appears to be a money laundering scam. I thank God and my mom, who must be watching over me, that nothing had a chance to happen. I received a job offer that seemed legit at the time. But, maybe it was my desperation to find a job that clouded my judgment. Something just kept gnawing away at me. Ya know that little voice in your head that doesn't shut up (which I now believe is my mom's voice). So, I kept digging on the web, and low and behold, I came across this website called the complaint.
I received this job offer via email. Apparently, they saw my resume online. I thought it was strange to get a job offer like this, but like I said, I've been desperate for a job. The offer included EIN, and all the other usual info. You would expect. So, I did it. I followed the instructions and interviewed by IM.
They didn't ask for any money, or push me to give any account info., so I thought okay. I told him to mail my paychecks to me and he was fine with that. He was going to mail me money orders and I was to deduct what I needed for software, equipment, etc. And send the rest to a processing center. Then he preceded to give me assignments, like writing essays about data entry in the modern world, until I receive the money orders.
I knew something was wrong, but, I kept hoping I was wrong. I mean, come on, a big corporation like Comcast using money orders. And no real company would ask you to open a checking account with Wells Fargo in the first place (he asked, I said no, he didn't put a fight about it). But, then I started paying attention to other details, like the phone number he kept calling from. It had a 111 area code. I called 411 and asked about it. They said they couldn't lookup international numbers. Clue #1.
Then I asked Mr. Robert Cage why he was calling me from an international number when he was supposed to be located in Philadelphia, PA. He tried to tell me that it was storming there and it was messing with the signal. (Lame) I'm not that stupid. I watch the weather channel. He had been calling me from this same number for 3 days. Anyway, (Clue #2) when I asked him for the company address again, he got alittle defensive saying he already told me the address and what the company does, then it took him a while before he answered me. Seems to me, if you are a manager working for a company, you should be able to answer that question pretty quickly.
So, being the suspicious person that I am, I surfed the web all weekend looking for scams that matched this. I called Comcast to find out if this person even worked there, and of course, they couldn't answer. So, I emailed their corporate office (haven't received a response yet). Then, I checked around to see if I could look up the EIN to see if this was a legit number. That was trying because every web site that you can do this on cost money, which I have none of. I think he was counting on that. But, then that light bulb went off above my head, I just typed the EIN in the subject line of my web browser and all these different companies popped up. And, the complaint gave me all the answers I needed.
Needless to say, I emailed Mr. Cage and told him to leave me alone or I would report him to the proper authorities. I would like to think that if I wasn't so hard up for a job, I wouldn't have fell for this. Lesson learned.
Kellie
conway, Arkansas
U.S.A.
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