Victim Location 90621
Total money lost $700
Type of a scam Employment
This company advertised a job for admin assistant through Craigslist, they ran 2 offices – one in Anaheim and one in Santa Clarita, and go by the name of "Resource Program", or "Soteria Mentoring". When contacting you back for the phone interview, they say they provide help to people in financial distress who come to them for help. Once hired, you find out this is a cold calling telemarketing office, they tell the people they call that they are a government agency and they’ll help them get financial aid and grants, that they’ll help them out with bills, debt, past due mortgage, etc. They collect personal information from the people they call, charge them a large fee, and the people never get the help they expect. Once you realize this place is not what they advertise to be, and you quit the job, they do not give you a final check. I worked there for a total of 3 weeks, and only got paid for 1 week. There were other people who started the same week as me and they were also owed anywhere from 3 to 4 weeks pay when they decided to quit. This place is a scam to the employees as well as for their "clients".
Victim Location 92868
Total money lost $5,000
Type of a scam Credit Repair/Debt Relief
This company contacts senior citizens as well as people in financial distress, with the promise of finding them help and financial assistance, then, after finding out all personal information and if they have any savings/checking/credit card credit, they charge them a fee based on that amount they report having – this can be anywhere from $500 to $7000. The people then receive "proposals" in the mail, which are letters to 3rd party agencies, typed up with a "life story" of the "client" and requesting help from those agencies. These letters go unanswered 99% of the time, and the people in financial distress can’t ever get their money back. This company also does not pay employee wages – they either delay checks, or don’t pay at all after you realize what they are/do, and quit the "job".
Victim Location 64647
Type of a scam Government Grant
Consumer received call from the Resource Program (657-208-7920) stating qualified for a grant. Consumer was advised to pay $500 -$1,000 for the application process.