Recieved a random email from a woman named Michelle Swan, claiming she worked for a company called Gulfstream and was interested in me for a project manager position. Having applied to many in the recent weeks, I did not find this alarming and assumed it was one of the many jobs I'd sent my resume out to.
Her email explained I'd go through training at home which I'd be paid for, then training in the office, and finally I'd be working either from that office, in a new office, or from home. She has contracts and forms that all looked very legitmate. The email was this:
We are interested in NY/NJ area, mainly because of Associated Textile Rental Services, Inc., Christopher Service and few others, all located in your area. Our local branch will be opened in New York in summer 2014.
You will not have to relocate; just visit it once or twice a month for paperwork.
Training. It is done in 2 stages. First stage takes 4 weeks of every day studies and the final test for the
fifth week. Training will not take you more than 20 minutes every day, easy to combine with your full time job,
if you have one. It also includes a paycheck to compensate your time spent, $1,500 sent after 4th test. You will be invited to stage 2 if you succeed with the first one. The second stage is a week of instruction course and
the final interview held in one of our locations. You will be invited to come here for 1 week (NYC or London), all expenses are paid by our side, including trip and stay. You will start full time once you complete both stages of training.
You won't have to wait for the launch of the office in your area. You will work out of your home for some time; we will provide all necessary equipment. You will be able to choose where to work by the time we open an office nearby, either keep working out of your home or in office. We cover the relocation cost if required or provide equipment for your home office.
I filled out the paper work, and was called by a David Bender, who said he would be taking care of my training. He rushed me off the phone, had zero interest in my answers to his questions and told me a lot of contradictory information including that he would provide me with a computer and my work week would be based on how well I did my work. I chauked it up to his accent and perhaps a language barrier - but started to get the feeling something wasn't right. He said I'd have another interview from corporate and scheduled a date and time with me.
I got the phone call and the person again, wanted very little to do with my responses to his questions. He'd cut me off mid sentence, ask very easy questions, and then again hung up with me abruptly. I once again gave him the benefit of the doubt that maybe it was because he was from a different country. I recieved an email from David that "corporate love me" and my training would start.
Training was basically a document of shipping definitions and company regulations. Cut and dry. Nothing difficult. I took 1 or two tests before the scam set in. David told me I could recieve a larger paycheck for training if I did some purchasing of new equipment for the company. I said yes, and he sent me the scam details. I was link my credit card account to a random account of theirs, purchase a ton of Mac computers and send to some strange foreign country. They'd pay me back, and somehow with his crazy explanation they'd pay me more for the purchase and I'd even have a cut.
I truly was so sad when the scam set in, because it was truly remarkable how professional and believable everything was. I decided to play with David and stalled the purchase project, and kept going with the training. I sent blank tests back with no answers filled. He'd email me that I passed with flying colors and did a great job, then keep pressuring about the purchase. I kept up the excuses - and kept sending in blank tests, all of which he told me I did well on. When he realized I wasn't ever going to purchase his Macs, he dissapeared.
The company site went down, and the emails stopped.