Victim Location 30157
Type of a scam Fake Check/Money Order
I received a text from someone claiming to be ‘Eric Blake’ of Ripcord. He claimed that he found my profile on Linkedin and asked if I was looking for employment. I said yes and proceeded to do a quick internet search of the company to see if it was legit. It was. I was then asked to reach out to someone claiming to be ‘Mrs. Brooke Bento’ on the Telegram App and schedule an interview. After a 20 minute Q&A, I was told I had the job as a data entry person for Ripcord. Then I was told that I needed about 15 different Accounting Programs and told that a check would be sent to me to purchase these items from a particular vendor (they never provided the vendor’s name). I was asked to contact ‘Mrs. Bento’ 2 days in a row at 8 am sharp. On the second, I received a tracking # for the check and was asked to track it. I received it (envelope originated from TX) and reported that I had and was then asked to ‘verify’ the check amount. Thing is, the check did not have the company’s name on it anywhere and was essentially blank with no logos or watermarks. I mentioned this to ‘Mrs. Bento’ who stated the automotive company ‘Chelsea Automotive Group LLC ‘ from which the check was supposedly written, was a subsidiary of their company, Ripcord Inc. Even the CITIBANK, N.A. location they claimed to use had a zip code that was one number off from the actual number. I had to call 3 different numbers as the first listed in my internet search was no longer active. I found the customer service number. NO ONE attempted to help me at the bank, I called 5 times-I either had to have an account with them, bring the check in (no branch remotely close to me) or attempt to deposit it. I then called the phone number for the automotive company that the check was from and a guy answered and once I told him that I was calling to verify a check,he asked if it came from Chelsea Automotive Group and when I said yes, he immediately stated that it was fraudulent.