Victim Location 98198
Type of a scam Phishing
This “company” advertised on Seattle Craigslist, seeking participants in a 2-hr fitness research/study for a coampensation of $200 in cash at the end of the study session. I replied to the advertisement and went through the screening process, conducted over the phone. After that a person named Trena began communicating with me via email with respect to the logistics of the study. Having participated in numerous product testing/consumer opinion research studies in the past, her communication style, her requests, inconsistencies and her un-business like writing right away raised some red flags in my mind. However I was still going to fulfill the commitment I made to that study and attend it on June 20th, 2018. The all of a sudden, in the eleventh hour, Trena emailed me that she was withdrawing the original form of payment $200 cash at the end of the study and that instead the payment will be made later via PayPal, or Amazon, or check. This was a significant departure from the original promise made to me by this company through advertisement and expecitely over the phone and via emails. I responded to Trena, stating that I was perplexed with that change, that it did not sound trustworthy and that unless the company adhered to the originally promised form and timing of payment (cash at the end of the study session) I was going to withdraw my participation. I received a very irritated reply, in which she stated that the change was the result of a “simple oversight”, that cash payment at the end of the study was not an option any longer and that she was only happy to replace me with someone else.
After receiving that email I spent a considerable amount of time looking up Forage Design Research and could not find anything that would prove this company’s legitimate business or associations. A researcher by trade, I could not locate any licensingdocuments, or any registrations of this business, in any state. The company does not have a legitimate address, but it operates from San Francisco, CA. Forage Design Research is a gost-business and Trena Partee, who is listing herself on her LinkedIn profile as its owner and founder does not operate in good faith.