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07/23/2007 04:18:07 AM · #1 |
I feel a need to confess my foolishness and downright stupidity, and maybe give a warning to anyone else that may be as freakin' stupid and down and out as I am, to save them the shame and embarrasment, among other things.
Long story short, things have really sucked for me as of late, I am on a serious job hunt, and struggling to keep my family out of a cardboard box. (maybe a slight exagerration, but not much)
So, anyways, I got this email-
Eugene Tatroe: Job offer
We have found your resume at monster.com and would like to suggest you a "Transfer manager" vacancy. We have thoroughly studied your resume and are happy to inform you that your skills completely meet our requirements for this position. Our company buy, sell, and exchange digital currencies, like E-gold and E-bullion. This is a part-time position. Your schedule will be flexible. You will need to spend on average 1-2 hours per day, Monday-Friday. This is a work-at-home position. All communication will be online.
General requirements:
* Applicants must be at least 21-years-old
* Good communications skills
* Honesty, responsibility and promptness in operations;
A position within our company on a trial period for one month starting from the beginning of the work will be offered to the successful applicants. During this trial period you will be receiving training and online support while working and being paid. Employees on a one month trial period are evaluated at least one week prior to the end of their trial period. The supervisor can recommend termination, during the trial period. At the completion of the trial period, the supervisor can recommend continued employment, extension of trial period, or termination. During the trial period you will be paid $1,500 per month. You will also be keeping 8 percent commission from every payment received from our customer. With the current volume of clients on average your overall income will add up to $3,000 USD per month. After the trial period your base salary will go up to $2,250 USD per month, plus 8 percent commission.After the trial period you may ask for additional hours or proceed full-time.
If you are interested in this position, and would like to know more, please e-mail me: part.time.memoney@gmail.com
We will contact you within 24-hours
MeMoney Exchange Inc
Well, it sounded a little fishy to me, but it didn't seem (at least in my messed up head at the time) like typical scams I'd seen, or typical home based business bullshit that wants money up front, fees, etc. I decided to at least see what I could find out about it. I did tread litely though. I checked out the website, to me it looked good. I replied, and said I was interested in further information. I then received this email-
Hello Gene Tatroe!
This is a part-time position. It's required 3-4 hours per week to perform the work.
During the trial period you will be paid $1,500 per month.
You will also be keeping 8 percent commissionThis is a commission
based position.
There are no any taxes and fees involved in order to
get started. To start this work you need only your personal computer
and the internet. It is the opportunity to work at home.
To get some more information about our company you can visit our
web-site: //memoney.cn
To start work to our company you must fill out and sign the
contract manually.
You can download contract here:
//memoney.cn/contract3.doc
Don't forget to send scan of any document with your sign(ID, Drive
License, etc.)
Please, send signed contract to us by fax : +1 (800) 561-0284 ext. 112 or
SCAN and E-MAIL to olga@memoney.cn.
If you have any questions you can visit our help page:
//memoney.cn/?action=info20
--
Thank you,
Financial Manager,
Olga Chudova
MeMoney Exchange Inc. mailto:olga@memoney.cn
I checked it out again. I looked over the whole site. I read through all the FAQ's, and the 'work for us' section. I googled it, I searched at other places. I didn't find anything except a couple brief blog mentions. I downloaded the employment contract, and looked that over in detail. I discussed it with my wife, I talked with a couple of friends. At my buddy Trav's place tonight, we searched with his good connection, and we did find a yahoo forum post where someone had asked about it, and a person had posted that they had a similar experience, and it turned out bad, they actually said they were almost arrested. I was still thinking about it though, and came home, and went over the site, the emails, the contract again, and again. I googled it again. I had checked out with my old friend Snopes, and didn't find anything, but went there again and started digging through their stuff, then found this.
I am such a fucking tool...It is depressing to thing that I am at such a low point in my life, so desparate, that I came close to falling for this obvious bullshit. I actually cried, to know that I made myself blinded to what was staring me in the face, that I am such a fucking failure that I was grasping at this with high hopes these last couple of days. I thank God, that even though as much as I was trying to override my gut instincts, that it kept gnawing at me, and I kept digging. I thank my friend Trav also, he really stressed being leary, and strongly urged that I not do anything soon. He said to talk to his friend Brian at the wedding this friday, he works in the financial world and could probably know something about it. I can't hardly imagine the mess I could end up in if I had rushed into this. I can't even believe, now, that I am so hard up that I was even considering this. I was even fantasizing about buying that 30D that I dream about. hunh... I am such a pathetic fucking loser :-(
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07/23/2007 04:25:42 AM · #2 |
If you filled in that contract, sent your ID to them and wanted to go for the job, without even checking it out first like you did now, then that would be stupid. Especially when you felt like it sounded a bit suspicious.
I think you did the right thing. You checked them out, right! Nothing's wrong now.
Good luck with finding a good job. I'm sure it will work out allright. |
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07/23/2007 04:28:30 AM · #3 |
Don't be so hard on yourself.
I know what you are going through, also doing some serious job hunting. Keep the faith buddy, things will work out for you.
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07/23/2007 05:15:11 AM · #4 |
The only reason to be angry is that fraudsters of this ilk exist in this world.
As a highly principled person, I am disgusted that people would stoop to conning people like this. I also donĂ¢€™t know why the police arenĂ¢€™t more interested in stopping this kind of practice. The fact of fraudsters is age old, but the easy pickings of the internet leave you wondering how the electronic frontier is being policed.
I fell foul of an e-bay scammer recently. He had a good reputation for selling reserved but unreleased concert tickets, but changed tack at some point and started diverting the funds to an unsuccessful business venture and went bust before I received anything. It cost me a fair old whack Ă¢€“ enough for a DSLR. This kind of thing makes you realise how exposed you can be.
Well done on not falling for this one.
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07/23/2007 05:22:16 AM · #5 |
Don't be so hard on yourself Tater. You didn't sign the contract, you followed your gut and checked them out.
((((hugs))) |
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07/23/2007 05:28:57 AM · #6 |
Seems to me you were cautious and did nothing wrong at all and infact did completely the right thing.
Good man!
Something will come up.
I'm so cautious I didnt even click on the link!
Message edited by author 2007-07-23 05:30:12. |
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07/23/2007 05:29:34 AM · #7 |
thanks everbuddy.
It is just so obvious. I can't believe I could take it serious even for a moment :-(
I'm trying to think of what the Ebola Monkey Man would do, and play these dickweeds. |
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07/23/2007 08:28:39 AM · #8 |
| Dude, just relax and take a deep breath. You did all your homework and didn't fall totally into it before it was too late. It would be great if you could take the job and then send the checks back to whoever wrote the check with a big stamp across it with the url of the Snopes page on it. :-) But that might get you killed... or worse. :-( |
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07/23/2007 08:50:56 AM · #9 |
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07/23/2007 09:07:14 AM · #10 |
Man, if you are this hard on yourself for believing them for a short time, how hard would you be if you had taken the last steps? Yes, it would have been a stupid mistake, but why do we always think we are immune to scams? Scammers, bunco artists, etc., do what they do because most people are inherently trustworthy and trusting (look at how easily we believe our governments). ;-)
edit: PS, put down the whip. I felt for you when I read the part about how you cried. It reminds me of my good friend who got mugged and who got punched in the eye when he resisted. He was hating himself because he wasn't tough enough to fight off the mugger! Obviously his hatred was directed towards the wrong person.
Message edited by author 2007-07-23 09:10:57. |
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07/23/2007 09:11:49 AM · #11 |
I get a few of those emails a week.
I dont know how that didnt instantly send up a red flag.
I get the ones that say "We just need you to transfer money from one account to another, keeping your 'commision' from each transaction" |
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07/23/2007 09:16:05 AM · #12 |
A few years ago a "company" contacted me to be a manager. Strange since I have no managerial training or experience. At that point I absolutely hated my job and this sounded great. I tried to look up the company website and came up with hundreds of different sites. Very strange. I tried to lookup their phone number in the yellow pages and I couldn't find it at all. I went online and searched Canada 411. Again I got a whole bunch of results. I did a reverse lookup on the phone number of the person who had contacted me and there was an address listed. I looked it up and it was a residential address.
Like you I started hunting forums etc. In the end it was a stupid pyramid scam where everyone is a "manager".
It does hurt to be almost taken in by such a scam. It hurts a hell of a lot worse if you are taken in though.
Message edited by author 2007-07-23 09:16:38.
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07/23/2007 09:23:31 AM · #13 |
Originally posted by taterbug:
thanks everbuddy.
It is just so obvious. I can't believe I could take it serious even for a moment :-( |
Financial strain can cause people to let their guard down. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and your desire to get things back on track for yourself and your family makes you look harder at any opportunity and rationalize any potential drawbacks. I think you did really well considering your circumstances -- nothing to be ashamed about. |
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07/23/2007 09:27:31 AM · #14 |
Just got one:
While we may have high expectations of our associates, we also give them high rewards. Imagine being part of a stable organization with a sterling reputation - a place where the Sydney Car Centre is an integral part of all that we do. With our car centre personality, you'll not just succeed - you'll thrive. And, with our strong commitment to promoting from within, you'll definitely enjoy your rise to the top.
Today the Sydney Car Centre is looking for an industrious regional assistant to fasten the process of the delivery of customer payments to the suppliers. The position offered is a part-time job, and will only require from you to be available for 1-2 hours a day.
As a regional assistant, you will be supposed to operate with the payments from those customers, based in your country. You will be expected to accept 2-3 transactions to your bank account every week, make certain calculations about every transaction (you will be precisely instructed about it), & transfer the funds to the suppliers by means of western Union/Money Gram less your fee & the charges of the Western Union/Money Gram. You will be continuously communicating with the manager from the head office, who will instruct you & give advice regarding every new payment.
The ideal candidate will be industrious, goal-oriented person, with the availability of a personal/business bank account suitable to be used for the company needs. Knowledge of English, computer literacy and sociability are appreciated.
The company guarantees to pay NET 10% fee out of the amount of every payment you dealt with and to provide you with the regular income & flexible schedule. All the related expenses you might have (like the Western Union/Money Gram chargers, related expenses on traveling) are covered by the company.
The more detailed information is available on our web-site //vacancy-55080.scc.st/vacancies.php, where you can fill in the on-line application form for this position.
We would be glad to welcome you in our team!
We are looking forward to hearing from you as soon as possible!
Yours sincerely, Jesse Rouse |
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07/23/2007 09:28:01 AM · #15 |
I feel so sad when someone berates themselves. Think positive. You didn't jump. You did your homework and wasn't taken in. You saved yourself from the bad guys. You showed smarts by looking into it. You did everything right to protect your family and yourself.
Good job!
Hope you find a job soon. I can imagine how it feels to be unemployed and the bills keep stacking up. United Way might be able to point you to a cccs that is legit if you are having financial problems. Not saying you are, just saying, you know? They are a good gateway for many helpful services. |
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07/23/2007 09:34:09 AM · #16 |
Nothing wrong with envisioning a fantasy. You did your homework and did the right thing in the end. You also posted here so future "F..ing tools" will be able to avoid making the mistake. Good work!
I hope things turn around for you soon! Good Luck!
PS Boeing is hiring like crazy here in Washington if you are interested in moving ( //www.boeing.com/employment ) |
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07/23/2007 11:17:15 AM · #17 |
Hey tater, I think most of us have been in such a desperate position at one time or another that we were willing to believe the unbelievable, or do what would normally be unthinkable.
Fortunately, most of the time, reason and common sense overcome the temptation of such scams, and you did well to not move forward.
I agree, don't be so hard on yourself, just keep job hunting, and better times will prevail.
I'll keep you in my prayers, and on my mind if I hear of any jobs!
Linda |
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07/23/2007 11:18:20 AM · #18 |
| I was so desperate once that I sold copier machines for 2 years. |
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07/23/2007 03:19:44 PM · #19 |
Crying is good. Thanks for posting. Well done for identifying the mud-pond (just) before jumping in. I've just come back from working late in the evening for no pay - wait a minute - that's probably not quite true. I actually get a sort of welfare payout while working for a firm with whom I may have a job some time in the future. I'm not unhappy about all this but I have some monster insecurity down in there somewhere.
No advice, sorry. Just to let you know you're not alone. The labour market is a wee bit tough in post-industrial times. Seems to me that, despite nearly blowing it, you made a good call. Stick at it. |
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07/23/2007 03:21:37 PM · #20 |
Originally posted by pcody:
I feel so sad when someone berates themselves. Think positive. You didn't jump. You did your homework and wasn't taken in. You saved yourself from the bad guys. You showed smarts by looking into it. You did everything right to protect your family and yourself.
Good job!
Hope you find a job soon. I can imagine how it feels to be unemployed and the bills keep stacking up. United Way might be able to point you to a cccs that is legit if you are having financial problems. Not saying you are, just saying, you know? They are a good gateway for many helpful services. |
Thanks, but it's not quite to that point yet :-) I am not totally unemployed, yet. The place I work, has always had 2 partners that owned it. One was the operating partner, he has been in the pizza business pretty much his whole life and knows it well. The other was the 'silent' money guy. Last year, they had a falling out and went their separate ways. Needless to say, the money guy kept the businesses and has been forced to be involved and actually run the place, and frankly, doesn't know jack about it. Just before they split, the store manager of like 12 yrs (you may know him as  Toocool) quit. The owner hired a guy with no experience, cause he got him for dirt cheap, and that sure hasn't helped. He has a hard time keeping management in his 4 stores because of low pay, the way he treats them, and crappy conditions (food industry management). They get disillusioned real quick when they are putting up with a lot of crap, and cashing out drivers every night and we are making more than they are. :-)
Anyways, the owner has been on a nut since the min. wage increase. He goes on and on about how it is 'killing' him. He keeps raising prices and making cutbacks, but all it's doing is continually driving sales down. Frankly, when you look at his lifestyle, the homeS he has, cars he drives, travel he does, hanging out all the time at upscale clubs trying to rub elbows with the big wheels around town, compared to me, living paycheck to paycheck, watching my family go without any type of luxuries, pinching pennies just to keep living, it is pretty hard to have sympathy for how 'hard' he has it, you know?
So anyways, he has cut our hours back drastically, eliminated any overtime, cut our compensation money back, and everything there just sux these days. Everyone there, including the store manager is looking for a new job. It is a shame, it used to be an alright place to work. It has a crew that has been there for years, 2 of them 12 + yrs. The guys are very reliable and rock solid. We all know our job and do it well. Heck, it was up to us basically to train the new manager, and the place can run on auto pilot pretty much. I've worked around some over the years, and I can honestly tell you, this place was an exception to the norm.
The job market, and the economy in general is horrible around mid-michigan. I wish I could afford to move somewhere else! I got other crap going on, and in general, I am just going through some hard times right now. I usually have a pretty good, positive attitude, I think, and it just sux to be feeling so down. This scam thing was just a real kicker right now. I guess I just needed to vent. Thanks for listening, and I really do appreciate all your posts. :-) |
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07/23/2007 03:29:04 PM · #21 |
| If the guy is losing money and the staff is so solid, why don't you get together and buy him out? Point out that if he can't make a profit with an experience crew like he has, he sure won't make any with a bunch of employees who know less about the business than (even) he does. |
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07/23/2007 03:31:58 PM · #22 |
Hey, at least you didn't just look before you leap! This is what happens when you do.....
pipe dreams down the tube
It's just really sad that we have to suspect everyone these days :( |
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07/23/2007 03:57:54 PM · #23 |
Don't be hard on yourself, Tater. Being in a hard spot can REALLY get your morale down. I've been there before too. In the end, you didn't fall for it.
Keep on looking!
If you really want out of what you're doing now, I'd suggest doing some research to find something you like, and work in that direction.
Try to keep your cash coming in, though. I've done similar with no cash flow... ie, cash advances from credit cards and bank loans! Took years to dig us out of that! :-O
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07/23/2007 04:02:48 PM · #24 |
Can I someone summarize what he's talking about? Sounds interesting but I'm such a lazy bastard I can't get past the first sentence.
Message edited by author 2007-07-23 16:03:08. |
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07/23/2007 06:48:52 PM · #25 |
Originally posted by LanndonKane:
Can I someone summarize what he's talking about? Sounds interesting but I'm such a lazy bastard I can't get past the first sentence. |
Cole's Notes;
He needs a new job, got an offer that sounded really good, researched the hell out of it, seemed okay, then just when he was about to go for it, found it was a scam :(
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