I am reporting a scam that has been disguised as a government service. This scam is being perpetrated at the following address:
Government Career Services, 4942 Vineland Avenue, North Hollywood, CA 91601.
The proprietor at this location goes by the name of Joy. She did not disclose her last name which I later learned was Obi. From her accent, I deduced that she is a native of Nigeria. I did not know this at first or I would have left immediately. Later, I asked if she was Nigerian and she denied it and claimed to be native of South Africa.By then, I had already paid the fee.
Upon arriving at the office in North Hollywood, we were asked to sit at her very untidy desk, whereupon she proceeded without hesitation, to demand that we pay $10 each before even being informed of any obligations we may have incurred. We were simply directed to go to this place and interview for jobs. There was no mention of tests or processes requiring payment. I politely informed her that we had no prior knowledge that payment would be required when the appointment was set and therefore we were not prepared to make any such payment. She replied that we could go back and reschedule for a later appointment. I asked to know what the payment was for. She said that it was intended to process our application and perform background checks. I thought if she was going to run background checks, then she would not be foolish enough to couch this payment in those terms without the intention of following through. Then I asked if they were a government agency and she affirmed that she indeed was and they were duty bound to do everything according to the law and assist job seekers to be employed by the federal government. I asked if we could pay by credit card and what name would appear on the credit card. She responded that credit cards were acceptable and the name "Government Career Services" would be shown on the statement.
She then gave us application forms to fill out and tests to take. After the tests she scored the tests and said we did not have passing grades. Looking over her score card, I immediately spotted wrongs answers that were being used to grade the tests.
I asked how we were going to get those jobs we came for. That is when she explained that we did not have a passing score of 90 or more. I asked how they were scored and how she came up with the score. She simply handed me the score card to check for myself. There was no indication how she arrived at her scores. Then she went on to say they were simply making assessments of how well we could do on the tests because the real government tests will be taken at another location. Now that they have assessed our aptitude levels it was up to us to go find the materials in order to study for the national federal government tests.
At that point I realized that I had been scammed and just not to let my exasperation show, I quietly left the premises. My next move is to bring an actionable complaint against this outfit and stop them from feeding on the frustrations of the jobless poor. I am not yet sure how to proceed with
bringing them to task. This Nigerian woman is perpetrating another version of the well-publicized 419 scheme that Nigerians are infamous for. This is America and she must be stopped and brought to justice!
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