Employment

Scam Type

Employment Scam

Date Reported

Oct 26, 2022

Victim Postal Code

20001

Total Dollars Lost

421

Scam Description

I got an employment scam by Midtown Paper Inc.
This company “HR Manager” contacted me via email upon seeing my resume on an online job board, Angel List. The HR Manager’s name is Jean Gardner. Email address: midtownpaperteam@gmail.com
After interviewing, I signed an employment contract on October 7th – employment position Business Analyst II, and started working for them on October 10th. The first week was informed as a training week, and following the employment contract, I would be paid $15/hour. After the training week, the rate would be $35.75/hour. The direct person in charge, the so-called direct Supervisor name is Dave Simpson. His title was CCO. Email address: teamsstrategistunit02@gmail.com
There was another “supervisor” called Sean Miller. This person is known as Accounting Manager. Email address: teamsstrategistunit01@gmail.com
The attached employment contract was sent to me while the company stayed in touch with me that after 1 month of performance evaluation, they would consider moving me to a full-time position.
The first week of training went by without any specific red flags or issues. However, everything turned upside down by the 2nd week.
I was informed that the company is currently in the re-branding process, thus, they are extending their team and hire 7 new staffs. However, later on, during the 2nd week of training, while I insisted on having the contact numbers and get to know the other new staff, these supervisors acted like they did not see the request at all.
By the end of week 1 (October 14th), the company informed me that they had sent me a FedEx package containing a company laptop and a printer. Additionally, they were about to send me a paper cheque for new staff funding of $2,450.00. However, by Tuesday of the following week (October 18th), I did not receive any cheque or FedEx package. I asked for the package tracking number, but Dave Simpson told me that he did not know clearly because sending the package was done by other people. Nevertheless, by end of Tuesday, Dave Simpson told me that he was frustrated with the internally slow process. Thus, Dave and Sean sent me an e-cheque with instructions on how to proceed.
On the next day, October 19th, Dave asked me to transfer $225 to an “accredited vendor” via Zelle. However, luckily, on that same day, my bank freeze my account due to an abnormal transaction. Thus, the Zelle transaction failed as well. I questioned Dave why the company forced employees to work with vendors directly and send money via Zelle, because such activities are strange, abnormal, and harmful to a business in various aspects. And all he explained was that because it’s company policies, the policies are established by senior managers with deeper mindsets than new staff like me.
On Thursday, October 20th, Dave followed up as if my bank issue had been resolved. (Luckily) my account was still frozen. I felt like being threatened by Midtown Paper Inc. Dave gaslighted me that this would affect my performance while knowing that this is not what I can control at all. I tried to make an appointment with him via direct or video call to clarify the matter, but he got frustrated, angry, and annoyed immediately, and he blamed me for trying to disturb his busy working morning. This is a big red flag to me that this kind of supervisor is extremely unprofessional! After that, he suggested doing another transaction via Venmo. To test if the vendor’s Venmo account was real, my sibling transferred $1 to the mentioned account. However, as discussed, we decided not to transfer the vendor again, as we received a transaction error after that.
On Friday, October 21st, my bank informed me that the cheque was fraudulent and bank closed my account. I contacted Dave again regarding the cheque issue, and he got angry. Dave asked “So what do you want now??!”. I proposed an alternative option to Dave whether the company can work with their vendor directly because there should not have any deduction in their bank account, and there would be no impact on their accounting ledger. Upon this proposal, Dave went missing in action!
On Monday, October 24th, I followed up with Dave again (still in a professional manner), but he did not respond. On Tuesday, October 25th, I dropped him the last message that if he continued to not respond, the employment contract between me and the company, Midtown Paper Inc., would no longer be valid. After that, I never see any communication from Midtown Paper Inc again.
I was lucky in this case that I only lost $1 to their “vendor”. However, as Dave went missing in action and there was no more communication from Midtown Paper Inc., this wasted my time, and I was not paid my wages of $420! This is a crucial lesson to any fresh grad or newly graduated student like me, first time finding a job. These cheating people deserve to stay in prison for the rest of their life!
I can discuss further details but please don’t state my name to the public! Thank you!

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