by MCAVIN
Tue Oct 29, 2013 7:03 pm
On Oct. 11, I received an email from The Ladders.com about a recruiter, Lucia Quinn, from Convatec wanting to interview me for a data entry/CSR work at home position with Trio Healthcare. The offer was for $19/hr during training and $25/hr after. They would provide me with my office equipment and software and provide full benefits.
I investigated, found out Lucia Quinn was real and Trio Healthcare was a real company in the UK owned by Convatec, a real US company. So I replied, they sent an interview questionnaire, I sent it back filled out, and voila, I got the job. I also received an email from the Trio Career Desk and someone named Stacy Clark wanting my full contact information to start my employee file. Then they contacted me through aol email and instant messaging and sending texts to my cell phone wanting me to do these silly tasks that seemed like I was doing someone's school work. They overnighted me a cashier's check for $2455. I deposited it and it cleared my account the next day.
While doing the tasks, I found posts on other sites about similar offers from other companies. Some of the words used were identical, ie. my commitment and charisma, and skepticism giving way for my charisma to shine and blossom. Certain that I was being scammed, I contacted Convatec and spoke to the head of HR, the REAL Stacy Clark, who had no idea who I was or anything about the position. Lucia Quinn had been the head of HR but left the company about a year ago and Stacy had not spoken to Lucia in months. Trio Healthcare strictly operates in the UK and is not hiring anyone in the US.
So, I continued to bait the fake Lucia Quinn to see where this would go. She wanted me to wire the money through moneygram and western union to Robin Coburn in Central California, even though the company is in New Jersey, and texts were coming from a Jersey number. The check itself was FedExed from Monroe, Louisiana with a Roswell, Georgia return address. The name of the bank was PacTrust Bank, which no longer exists, and the bank address on the check was a Bank of America in New York.
I took my money out of my bank account, opened a new account, and strung this woman along to wait and see what happened to the money. Turns out when a bank clears a check in your account, it is still not totally cleared. It takes 4-5 days for the bank to process a check. I deposited the check last Thursday, and today the money had disappeared from my account. The bank returned the check. Good thing I didn't wire money or I would have lost almost $2500. The idiot also sent another check for $2600 to supposedly cover cost of desk, shelves, file cabinet, etc. If I had fallen for that then I would be out $5000.
This is to warn everyone out there that these people are using real companies, real people associated with these companies, and even their social media profile pictures to look legit and scam law abiding citizens out of thousands of dollars. Be aware not only of emails sent to you from an individual who saw your resume on monster, career builder, or craigslist; but also emails sent from the professional job board itself like The Ladders. The offer was sent to me before they finished their investigation of the recruiter and discovered it was fake and removed them from their system.
I investigated, found out Lucia Quinn was real and Trio Healthcare was a real company in the UK owned by Convatec, a real US company. So I replied, they sent an interview questionnaire, I sent it back filled out, and voila, I got the job. I also received an email from the Trio Career Desk and someone named Stacy Clark wanting my full contact information to start my employee file. Then they contacted me through aol email and instant messaging and sending texts to my cell phone wanting me to do these silly tasks that seemed like I was doing someone's school work. They overnighted me a cashier's check for $2455. I deposited it and it cleared my account the next day.
While doing the tasks, I found posts on other sites about similar offers from other companies. Some of the words used were identical, ie. my commitment and charisma, and skepticism giving way for my charisma to shine and blossom. Certain that I was being scammed, I contacted Convatec and spoke to the head of HR, the REAL Stacy Clark, who had no idea who I was or anything about the position. Lucia Quinn had been the head of HR but left the company about a year ago and Stacy had not spoken to Lucia in months. Trio Healthcare strictly operates in the UK and is not hiring anyone in the US.
So, I continued to bait the fake Lucia Quinn to see where this would go. She wanted me to wire the money through moneygram and western union to Robin Coburn in Central California, even though the company is in New Jersey, and texts were coming from a Jersey number. The check itself was FedExed from Monroe, Louisiana with a Roswell, Georgia return address. The name of the bank was PacTrust Bank, which no longer exists, and the bank address on the check was a Bank of America in New York.
I took my money out of my bank account, opened a new account, and strung this woman along to wait and see what happened to the money. Turns out when a bank clears a check in your account, it is still not totally cleared. It takes 4-5 days for the bank to process a check. I deposited the check last Thursday, and today the money had disappeared from my account. The bank returned the check. Good thing I didn't wire money or I would have lost almost $2500. The idiot also sent another check for $2600 to supposedly cover cost of desk, shelves, file cabinet, etc. If I had fallen for that then I would be out $5000.
This is to warn everyone out there that these people are using real companies, real people associated with these companies, and even their social media profile pictures to look legit and scam law abiding citizens out of thousands of dollars. Be aware not only of emails sent to you from an individual who saw your resume on monster, career builder, or craigslist; but also emails sent from the professional job board itself like The Ladders. The offer was sent to me before they finished their investigation of the recruiter and discovered it was fake and removed them from their system.
