Pertus Worldwide banking scam flase promises of excellent income and future promotion TOTAL AND COMPLETE FRAUD Milan, Italy (or So They Say, I Think Not) "internet"
Well, Ladies, & Gents, it seems we all know how this scam works. However, I have not seen one story as to what any of you have done about it...
All of you have claimed to be unable to afford the expense of the bad check, yet, I see no steps to working to resolution.
I found the position on monster, like many of you. I looked it up on the internet, and found it to be a "debt collector", and nothing else. Nothing good, bad or otherwise. So I proceeded. What I found interesting was this... I e-mailed a note of interest, I was then instructed along with a letter of job description, the application from ERNESTO PAVONE.
I responded, and stated that I was going to immediately fill out the application in whole, and provide all the necessary identification required that day to speed up the process. I also said that I would e-mail RICCARDO CREPALDI after finishing his e-mail, as per his instructions. And I did.
About 2 days later I received an e-mail stated that my backround check came back clear & that "I was someone they could trust their money with..." FUNNY THING. I NEVER EVER SENT IN THE APPLICATION.
I got my first check on October 14th, for $4729.00. I called the bank from which it was drawn on. The account number and routing number were ctive. The company name was a name I was familiar with, and had actually done business with in the past.
I deposited the check on October 16th...
I withdrew the money on October 21, and WU'ed the funds to Balerus, per the e-mailed instructions. All seemed fine.
For some reason, on Wednesday, October 22, I got an urge to look up the company again. So I went to google, and there it was. and that is how I found you guys.
Immediately after reading the (3) postings that were there that night, I immediately called my bank, and at that point, I was OK, and if it made it (1) more night I should be fine. Well... Friday morning I ran to my computer checked on-line banking, and there it was, a HUGE negative balance for a returned item.
I immediately called my local police department and left a message with the officer in charge with the internet fraud department, I am still waiting to hear from him. I then contacted my local branch. Maybe the check was returned NSF, I didn't know. Well, it was to soon to tell. So then I called the bank the check came from, and really they could not do much, as I am third party. Here is the interesting part...
I kept the Federal Express Envelope that the check came in. It has the name, address & phone number of the sender. I reverse looked up the sender's phone number, and it did not even come close to matching any of the information in the "from" section.
I then searched the company name listed in the "from" section, and there was nothing to be found on the internet, or any listings, either. My envelope came from New York. Does anybody else remember where there's is from?
I contacted Federal Express to see of the person who sent the package paid by cash or by credit card, hoping credit card, for obvious reasons. but I got an even better answer. This person has an account with FedEx.
Here is the problem. I have no idea who will actually help any of us with this. Now, I obviously don't know if any of you have any of this tye of info or not, but I have been told that this is the Russian Mafia.
In addition, as you all have mentioned, it is quite a chunk of money. $4700.00 (or so...) may not seem like a lot to the police, or to the bank (in the fact of us having TO PAY IT BACK...) but I know we are in a HUGE bind now. I am doing every single thing I can to get to the bottom of this.
Quite honestly, I do not think anybody is in Milan. I think they are all right here in the US and are sending the money to there poor families in Russia. And I say that because of this. when you e-mail out of the counrty, you must put their country code at the end of the address, and I know I have NEVER had to put Italy's code at the end of my e-mails. NOW, if you were sending thru a web page, that may not be the case, however, THERE IS NO WEB PAGE.
If any of you have done ANYTHING please add it to your postings, or if you have any suggestions, I know I am open...
Pamela
Fenton, Michigan
U.S.A.
8 Updates & Rebuttals
Warrior
Everywhere,Michigan,
U.S.A.
monster security operator and they are trying to stop them
#9Consumer Comment
Sat, January 24, 2004
Yes you are correct that the job scam is back on Monster. I have spoken with a monster security operator and they are trying to stop them from getting on the site with limited success.They have stolen credit cards and enter the system after 9:00 pm when the site monitor goes home.So far monster has to manually delete this bogus job offer.
Monster is trying to automize the deleting process.I will stay on top of this with Monster.So far the different names of the fraud companies are: Pertus worldwide,Dav-Publishing, TTZSH, DP GMBH,DLL GMBH.There may be others but you can tell who they are because the text of the message never changes. Hopefully some agency can sting these crooks.
Bea
Atlanta,Georgia,
U.S.A.
They Might Be Back On Monster.Com
#9REBUTTAL Individual responds
Thu, January 22, 2004
To everyone who was Rip off by these Criminals. I was looking on the monster.com and saw an ad similar to the first. Look and see if these are the same Clowns!!!!!!!
Det. Sgt. Jim Nagy
Richmond Hts.,Ohio,
U.S.A.
I am willing to help Richmond Heights (OH) Police Department
#9Consumer Comment
Thu, January 22, 2004
To everybody who has been ripped off by the people posing as representatives of Pertus Worldwide Ltd, I'd like to offer my help in this matter.
My name is Det. Sgt. Jim Nagy and I work for the Richmond Heights (OH) Police Department (suburb of Cleveland); somebody here in my city has fallen for the same scam and lost a large chunk of money, and I am investigating on her behalf.
First, I'd like to share some information with all of you who are frustrated with the apparent lack of concern by the law enforcement agencies and financial institutions that you have been dealing with.
In my experience, for most federal law enforcement agencies to get involved in a matter like this, there is a "threshold" amount which must be exceeded for an investigation to take place.
Individually, each of you has lost approx. $4,000 - $5,000, which is well outside of the minimum threshold - but together, if there are 10 to 12 people who have all lost $4,000 to $5,000 each TO THE SAME SCAM, well, then the dollar amount goes into the range of $40,000 to $60,000 which is a lot closer to meeting the threshold criteria.
If you are reading this, and have lost money to the Pertus Worldwide scam, please contact me and I will attempt to gather enough victims so that the federal law enforcement agencies and financial institutions get involved.
I can be contacted via telephone @ 216-486-1234. Thank you for reading, and I wish all of you the best of luck in resolving your situations - I hope I can help!
Mike
Farmington Hills,Michigan,
U.S.A.
Alarmingly most institutions could give a hoot as long as they get their money
#9Consumer Suggestion
Fri, December 19, 2003
Hello fellow pertus victims.I believe i was the first to enter a complaint against pertus back in early Oct.I was taken unfortunately like many of you and am still smarting from it.I know that some folks were saved by my early report and lets thank god for this medium to express and alert the unsuspected.As many of you know all complaints seem to have fallen on deaf ears.First of all we were victims not only by pertus but by our banking institutions,Monster.com and even western union when you think about it.Alarmingly most institutions could give a hoot as long as they get their money.Sadly they are back.If you look at monster this day (12-19-03) you will see two job postings dav-publishing and TTZSH.They are pertus reincarnated.One and the same.Again i alerted the usual channels(monster ignored my request to remove).The ads will dissapear and reappear at night about 10pm.I responded to the email address and said i was on to them and i hoped they rot in hell.I also made out a ripp-off report and hope it will reach the search engines in time to help a repeat performance.If any of you would like to contact me directly my email is mcdet@highstream.net maybe together we can stamp out this cockroach.I feel your pain and remember that there is strength in numbers.
Betsy
Indianapolis,Indiana,
U.S.A.
same thing happen to me regarding Pertus Worldwide.
#9UPDATE EX-employee responds
Fri, November 14, 2003
I have had the same thing happen to me regarding Pertus Worldwide.
I contacted the police, who sent me to the FTC who has been largely unresponsive. I con'tacted my bank, who said I would have to eat it. And I contacted monster.com, who said they knew about it already. (Thanks for the warning guys, maybe they should have a complaint of their own for that.)
When no one seemed to think there was a problem, especially whe I HAD CALLED MY BANK to find out if the check had cleared (to which they answered yes, or I never would have touched the money), or at least didn't seem to CARE that there was a problem, I got mad. And I contacted every news station and newspaper in my area to tell my story. I made a mistake, yes, but if ANYBODY ELSE did what they should have (ie. sent a warning email, actually CLEARED the check instead of making funds available as a FAVOR) I would have had a better chance of not ending up in this mess.
So I know there is nothing I can do about Pertus, since they are almost surely fake and since we matter not to Uncle Sam until we can fund an entire field trip to Camp David on our own, but I will be on the evening news in Indianapolis on Monday to tell everyone what the set-up for the scam is and to redden a few faces at monster.com and 5/3rd Bank. Maybe the publicity will be enough to get my bank to back down, maybe not. Either way I hope I save someone from making the same mistake!
By the way, my check was FedExed from Michael Gonzales in Colorado... And someone in Belarus is one rich son-of-a-gun because that's where we ALL sent the money!
Pamela
fenton,Michigan,
U.S.A.
Pertus Worldwide BAD NEWS UPDATE ..been screwed
#9Author of original report
Sat, October 25, 2003
Well, VERY BAD NEWS to report...
After having spoken to every possible source I could think of, our attorney, our bank, and the police... NOTHING can or will be done. They WILL NOT research the Federal Express stuff becasue it is out of state and no one holds jurisdiction, and no one is even remotely intereted in my theory in the fact that they are not in Europe, because the money went to Europe, and to them, that is all that matters. The FBI won't even talk to me becasue $4700.00 is not worth talking about to them...
So, in short, weall have been screwed, and the is NOTHING any of us can do about it. NOTHING at all. Except, pay the money back of course.
No one is interested in this case at all... no one cares that we all got scammed, and that this is probably going on right now under some other company name out of some other country, with some other contact.
I guess it is a lesson learned... the really hard and EXPENSIVE way.
For those of you that have been arrested, best of luck... my bank is not pressing any charges, and although they are not at all interested in helping me find the persons responsible, they are willing to help me with the debt.
GOOD LUCK TO YOU ALL!!!!
Kathy
Poughkeepsie,New York,
U.S.A.
They got me too. Here's what I did, Pamela:
#9UPDATE EX-employee responds
Sat, October 25, 2003
Forward everything (emails, FedEx envelope with account number to their company, bank information, EVERYTHING you have) to John Stossel (consumer advocate) at ABC news
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/2020/ABCNEWSspecials/JohnStossel.html
and explain the whole thing. If you still have the FedEx envelope that's a start. He'll find these people, who I suspect are in Brighton Beach (Brooklyn, NY - Russian mob,) since that's where the FedEx came from in the first place and they have it set up from a business account. Since the FBI isn't apparently interested in helping anyone here, don't even bother with them. A consumer advocate reporter WILL find these people and something will then HAVE to be done to stop them and to prosecute them.
If you don't want to send anything to Stossel, find the best consumer advocate reporter at one of your local TV stations and take all your information to them in person.
This has to stop somewhere, and if the law won't help us, I'm sure the media will be more than happy to.
So sorry this happened to you.
Velma
Atlanta,Georgia,
U.S.A.
I to Almost sent those people money Thank God
#9REBUTTAL Individual responds
Sat, October 25, 2003
They almost got me, but someone called me and ask me about the job, and that's when i started to look up their name and seen this page. Thank God For JESUS. I hope all you serve God he will Substain you.