Like so many people into todays market, I found myself applying to jobs that I normally wouldnt give the time of day to, and Using craigslist I wound up finding a "marketing" firm called advantage marketing LLC, who was hiring now, no experience needed, and advertising a 10-15 dollar an hour base salary, plus commission, the ad said that you were guaranteed $600-1000 a week during training. I spoke with the receptionist, Rachel who scheduled me for an interview at 3pm the next day.
I showed up for the interview, and there were 6 other canidates waiting, after about 15 minutes I spoke with the "branch manager" named Derek, who said he was from california. He dangled huge advancement oppourtunities within the company, while dancing around saying anything specific, other than saying that "I worked for the company for only two years, and they financed me to open this office, and you could do that too" While the interview was unproffessional, I decided to come back for a second interview where he said I would "observe" him, and this wold be an all day affair. I showed up for the second interview, as did 5 other of the exact same canidates who were there. We split into two cars, and my group observed Derek as he went to different business'es and solicitaed Spa Packages for Salon La Bella, at 90 percent off "to the first twenty people only" (yet the item we appeared to be selling was nothing more than a brochure detailing their services, with an out of date phone number to a legitimate salon no less...) Despite this, i decided to come back the next day to actually start working, what actually happened is I was driven out to a remote area of frisco, and "dropped off" to work my zone, with one other new hire (who may or not have been as new as she claimed to be) She certainly acted like my best friend and an ally in this "crummy job" yet she certainly did show up at several very convienent times just where I was (even though her area was suppoed to be different from mine) When I questioned her about it her story did not add up, she stated she went to several of the same exact business I went to.
Finally by the end of the day I was convinced that no one would be coming to pick me up, and finally the only other Employee of "the company" as it is always referred to showed up over an hour late to pick me and her up, drove us back to the office.
There were several comments that were made in regards to drug related activity, and violence, and to be perfectly honest I felt lucky to get back to my car and make it out of there in once piece.
Upon making it home I did a google search and found a number of similar scams out of california (where derek claimed to be from, San Diego) And while names may change, or this scam may not be performed by exactly the same group of people, it has the same overall MO, getting you into a job thinking that you are gaining clients for a marketing firm, and winding up going door to door to various business selling questionable "spa packages"
I am in the process of contacting the salon itself to verify they have even ever heard of these people, and I will certainly update this report when I recieve that confirmation.
It is also worth mentioning that this company never took ANY form of verification, tax information, birth certificate or social security card whatsover, although they did requestion my SSN on the questionable application, nor was there anything in writing saying that I would be paid whatsover, only a questionable comment about a 200 dollar "draw" during training, and a statement that each 45 dollar sale that I made would get me a 15 dollar commision (and that if my commission outweighed that draw during training that I would only recieve commission) but again, nothing at all in writing at all. IF ANYONE reads this and has had an issue with their information being used please let me know, its not as if my credit rating is worthy of trying to defraud, but as someone who is trying to REbuild their credit it would be nice to know.
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