CareerBuilder Fraud and Identity Theft

I have to address something to everyone because it happened to me and I want to prevent this happening to other students. As everyone knows the job market has been really bad and everyone is looking for jobs. Some people are very desperate for jobs and they are willing to do anything just to get the position. In this time, many BAD people have recognized people’s vulnerability and they are taking advantage of it in this time.

I am currently looking for a job in the South/Central Jersey area because I am looking to make my move. I have been applying to jobs on CareerBuilder, Monster, Indeed, and many other websites. Well on Friday I got a response back from a company which looked perfectly legitimate that they were impressed by my resume and they will like to start my probation employment for 2 weeks to see how I perform. I got really excited but little did I know…

I started asking questions and the job seemed too good to be true. When that starts to happen that should be your first sign that something is up. It was work from your home location, $52,000 a year, paid vacations, health benefits, and the whole 9 yards. The man named Frank who is supposedly the supervisor asked me to contact a woman named Emma who is another manager that will be in charge of my training. I contacted Emma and usually all the e-mails between me and the managers I always got a response within 30 minutes or so.

I asked Emma questions such as
Where do I submit my tax information for payroll?
How is most communication held, e-mail/phone/instant messenger?
How will assignments be delegated and delivered?

I got a response back but none of my questions were answered. Instead Emma told me a little story about herself and what she wanted from me. When I was reading what requirements I needed to provide I was appalled. First they wanted me to sign and send back a signed employment agreement that they provided for me. Then she told me I need to find our things from my bank such as how much can I transfer each day? What are the charges for me to transfer money from one bank to the next? How late is my bank open? What’s the banks address?
Then they actually had the nerve to ask me my bank name, account number, pin number, name on the account, what kind of account it is, wire routing number and ACH routing number. I was told to deliver all that information to them as soon as possible and they will then continue with my employment.

Now, needless to say if I gave them ALL that information my bank account would likely be empty when I went to check it. I knew better, but many people don’t. Some people are very desperate for a job where they would give all that information just so that they don’t sabotage their chances of getting the position. I learned a lot from this experience.

I would strongly recommend being careful what’s out there. Technically when you send your resume to someone you really don’t know where that resume is going. I have even stopped putting my full address on my resumes. There is no need for an employer to know my home street address unless he already hires me. You may be sending all this information to someone without even knowing who they are. If I didn’t know any better my identity would have been stolen. They would have known my whole address, my employment history, my bank account information and who knows what else.

I have filed complaints about this company in different places. The company’s name is P&A Properties and they supposedly invest and buy properties around the world. I filed at the Better Business Burroughs, sent a complaint to CareerBuilder where I found the position, RipOffReport.com and Fraud.com. I want to prevent the problem before it happens to others. After I told them that I appreciate the opportunity I was not interested because I don’t feel comfortable, I no longer for a 30 minute response back. Read over the e-mails I have received to be aware of what to watch out for:

During your trial you are supposed to handle at least one transaction. Let me make this point very clear using our current assignment as an example. P&A Properties needs to receive a deposit payment for the sold property. The buyer has confirmed that the payment is scheduled to go through within these few coming days. Once the transfer is made and funds are available in my account I have to forward it to the property owner.
Normally it’s done via bank transfer. But sometimes property owners prefer another way of receiving funds - money transfer systems like MoneyGram or Western Union. In such cases I have to physically withdraw cash from my bank account and then send it to the assigned
destination via Western Union or MoneyGram. I’m yet to hear back from them as to which method of payment they prefer.
P&A Properties provides an escrow services for the investors – that’s why these transfers are not being made directly to the property owners.
Anyway you should be able to send payment using any of the above methods, and here’s what we’ll do to avoid possible mistakes.
1) You need to find the nearest locations of both MoneyGram and Western Union and email their addresses and phone numbers to me.
2) You should call your bank to find out:
How much you can withdraw from your account per day (via ATM and in person via the counter). The limits may be too low without you even knowing it, so please check this out.
Check with your bank if you can make international transfers and how much this will cost you.
If wire transfer has been made - does it go directly to your bank account or does it go thorough the correspondent bank?
3) I will provide the client with the banking details of yours for the transfer I’ve mentioned earlier so the details required from you are as follows:
Bank name:
Your Local Bank branch address:
Account holder name:
Account type (checking, savings etc.):
Account number:
Wire Routing:
ACH Routing:
4) I’ll need your current address to complete all necessary paperwork for the hiring process.