I just wanted people to be aware of some employment listings. Please read to the bottom as this sheds some light on many different companies.
I went through Craigslist applying to many different positions and I got a response from one company entitled CTF Marketing. They supposedly advertised for pro sports teams, golf courses, etc. After getting an offer for an interview, however, I decided to do my due diligence and research the company a bit.
First step was to Google the company. What came up was not promising. There were two reports of CTF Marketing being a scam on this website: http://usacomplaints.com/reports/0/345/RipOff0345229.htm and http://usacomplaints.com/reports/0/348/RipOff0348852.htm. The problem was that both listings cited several different company names. I could not find any links between the companies at first, so that led me to my second step.
Check out the Florida Department of State website, specifically www.sunbiz.org. The listing for CTF Marketing gave a physical address of 4600 SHERIDAN ST, SUITE 300, HOLLYWOOD, FL 33021 and a mailing address of 5209 CLEVELAND ST HOLLYWOOD FL 33021. It also gave the name of Michael B. Wheadon.
So the next step was to research the name and addresses. Wheadon didn't yield much, and the physical address only yielded a bit more. The mailing address, however, gave a gold mine. According to Corporation Wiki, there are 21 different companies with a mailing address of 5209 Cleveland St., Hollywood, FL 33021.21! Http://www.corporationwiki.com/Florida/Hollywood/5209-Cleveland-St-Hollywood-FL-33021-a324754. Aspx
Just to make sure I went back to the Florida Department of State website. Sure enough, the companies all had the same mailing address. To make sure the address wasn't some large building where this could actually be feasible, I went to Google Maps to get an image of the location. What did it reveal? Not only was it not an office building, but it was a one-story house. Http://maps. Google.com/maps? Oe=utf-8&rls=org. Mozilla: en-US: official&client=firefox-a&q=5209 CLEVELAND ST HOLLYWOOD FL 33021&um=1&ie=UTF-8&split=0&gl=us&ei=Hac_StyqCKGxtwfXt4X6Dw&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1.
Based on this information I canceled my interview, and I would warn anyone else from even applying for any positions. I can't talk about the inner workings of the company, but based on the fact that 21 different marketing or advertising companies are operating out of a single story home, I would say it's more than a little shady.in case you didn't want to click on one of the many links on this report, here is a list of the companies. I'm sure it's not completely exclusive as it seems that a new one is being spawned every day:
Advanced Marketing, Inc., All Pro Marketing Group, Inc., B.C. Advertising Inc., Breakthrough Advertising, Inc., Core Marketing Group Inc., Epa Advertising, Inc., Executive Advertising & Associates, Inc., Fusion Marketing Concept, Inc., Hub Concepts USA, Inc., J.T. Advertising & Associates, Inc., J.T. Advertising Inc., Jerrica Marketing Group, Inc., P.S.G. Group, Inc., Passion Marketing, Inc., Primetime Promotional Group, Inc., Rus Advertising, Inc., Sky's The Limit Advertising, Inc, Top Flight Marketing Inc., Twin Marketing Inc., Universal Strategic Partners, Inc., and Vision Marketing & Associates, Inc.
Also the names associated with this address are: Darlene Labanca, Richard Patterson, Kevin Siebert, Jared Tacher, and Michael Wheadon.
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