Description

I was laid off Aug 22 of this year and 2 days later my husband who is a tree surgeon fell out of a tree about 40 ft and broke his back in 2 places. Transported immediately to hospital surgery to follow. Luckily I wasnt working and could be there with him in the hospital. Fast forward we come home i begin applying to different jobs. LinkedIn, Indeed, Remote.com, I mean tons of platforms and within a week or so I began getting calls back for interviews. Well a gentleman by the name of "Keith Louise" contacted me on Teams app, which is a platform many many remote positions use to stay in contact with their supervisors and colleagues! So I responded and this man made this job seem glamorous and how they take care of their employees. Ok well that sounds great. He sent a very formal application to me which I completed and returned and I was then interviewed by Mr. Louise what is considered a text interview over teams. Later the same afternoon he messages me saying good news our leadership wants me to extend the offer to you. Great, me just going through all the stress that comes with losing my job and then taking care of my husband on top of it all. I missed the red flags. Anyway we get to talking me and "Keith" I tell him about our situation and he asked me how much money I was in debt and I asvided about 4k and thats only credit card debt. Then he says well our company wants to help you out, pay off your credit cards and then you can use your credit cards with a 0 balance to obtain your equipment needed for the position you are being hired for. So I ask tons of questions he continued to make me believe he was not a scam and he would never. Yea Ok. Well once my credit cards were paid off I kinda felt obligated but he asked me to go to a store and purchase Apple gift cards to use to purchase the equipment. So I rode to our local Dollar General and got 4 gift cards 500 each. Well as I was finishing up at Dollar General my phone rings its Captial One advising me to stop they wont allow the last gift card to be purchased because they know this is a scam. So now Im pissed get back home and went off on "Keith" telling me no Im so sorry Ill contact them. Well in the meantime Capital One requested the bank statement to his account that he paid my credit cards off with, which was JPMorgan Chase bank. I told him this he said send me the link Ill upload the companys bank statement no problem. Then he comes back and said theres a problem with the link my company is on the phone right now sorting this out with Capital One. At this point i dont know who or what to believe. Capital One put restrictions on my card to shut it all down. They were all lies, I told the guys do not ever contact me again. I called him every name in the book and it did not phase this guy. My company will send you checks to cover the credit card balance. OH REALLY cause you gone pay for these credit cards you done ran my bill all up. Anywho, he continues to message me and advised that they are sending checks to me and to let him know when they arrived. Well needless to say 2 days later we had a delivery by one of those off brand companies! I retrieved said package and open it to find 50 blank checks in the name of a company out of NJ. So I asked him whose gonna sign the checks they are blank he said you are. I said oh no I'm not. You aint getting me in trouble so me and my mama load up went to her bank with the checks in tow. We sit down with the bank manager to get her opinion which she said no dont cash it, it has to be a scam. So now im devastated to say the least but now I know for sure. We contacted the company whose name was listed on rhe checks he sent to me. We verified the account information with them and wouldnt you know they knew nothing about these checks that were sent to me with their company logo and accouny information on it. This man sent me 50 blank checks told me to sign them and just deposit through the ATM not gonna happen atp. Im so mad because he literally ran 1700.00 worth of charges on my credit cards. I cut all ties with "Keith" who continued to message me day in and day out. Trying to convince me that he is not a scammer. When the company on the check has already confirmed they knew nothing about these checks, Begged me not to cash a 1900.00 on their account. I didnt, came home and burnt the checks just to get rid of them. Capital one has already confirmed this is a scam and wouldnt you know about a week later the payments he made on my credit cards returned from the bank as an NSF so now Im not only stuck with the previous charges he 'paid off' but also the new 1700 worth of charges. He has continued to message me on teams until about 3 weeks ago his profile and everything was deleted. Gone no where to be found. Well the following morning I received a call from a NJ state trooper who was called to the business whose checks I was sent. I got his message and immediately called him back. I kinda went through everything with him and he said what they will do now is spend 2 or 3k paying off your little debts and running them up to about 20k. THANK HEAVENS I stopped when I did. Otherwise as bad as this was could have been way worse. His name is Keith Louise and he was representing Treasury Guardian. Funny story, A few weeks later the real Treasury Guadian contacted me over text stating they wanted to interview me for a positiion I applied for previously. I sat and thought for a min. I guess I did apply that how Keith got my info in the first place. But I told the 'real' girl haha nice try but Ive been scammed already by this company please do not come at me trying to offer me a position that doesnt exsist. Yall this lady was in tears no ma'am I promise we are not scammers Ive been working with this company for almost 5 years and we have had people in the past attempt to scam some of our potential contacts, but she promised me she was the real deal. Im still not convinced and kept asking questions, to which she answered everyone of them without hesitating. I informed her of the guy who was named Keith Louise and she said ahhhh yes we have heard of that name many times. THEN WHY HAVENT YALL REPORTED IT! I'll never understand but hey I learned my lesson and will never allow anyone to bully me into a position that i have to pay for. I been offered 3 more positions with another company who request for the employee to pay for their background check. No thank you I'll respectfully decline the offer and explain to the company why I wont. Usually, they understand and will go ahead and pay for it or cut ties and ghost me. Yall just be cautious out there and pay attention to the red flags and if it sounds to good to be true it more than likely is.