Victim Location 20603
Total money lost $1,000
Type of a scam Employment
I was first contacted by a woman named Diann Wilson. She sent a text from what I know to be an Arkansas area code. She said that she was a recruiter for a company called M-13 Construction and that she reviewed my resume and thought that I would be a good candidate for the Administrative Assistant/Customer Service job.I asked her if the job was located in Arkansas as I did not live in Arkansas anymore. She told me that the company was expanding into different areas, but until they built a company in my area I could work from home and later choose to work at the company building if I would like. I told her I was interested. She said that I would have an interview with the hiring manager over the google hangouts app. I asked if it would be a video chat interview, and she told me that it would be all text. I had never had an interview over text which should have been a sign, but I did it anyway. I supposedly talked to a man named William M. Curry on the hangouts app. He asked the typical interview questions (ex:Where did you attend college? Tell me more about yourself. etc) I answered all the questions, and after he said that I seemed to be a great candidate for the job. I was excited as I am a young single mother looking for good job with good benefits. After saying I was a great candidate, he told me about the benefits and that i would be getting paid $25/hour with $12/hour for training. He asked for my address, my full name, cell number, and email address. I gave him the information because he said that the working materials would need to be delivered to my home. The next day I contacted him in the morning because he told me that I would get more instructions about my work. I talked to him and a check was sent to my email for $2,000 for my supposed working materials. I sent a picture of the conformation number after depositing the check, and he said after the check was cleared we could order my needed materials. So I was then told to contact him in the morning for further instructions. So the next morning I did, so and he instructed me to purchase 2 $500 Amazon gift cards. I only had the funds to purchase 1. I was dumb enough to do so, and I sent him the gift card info as well as the receipt. After I told him the check had not cleared yet. Before I purchased the gift card I thought it had, but I misread what my account said. I told him this and he said that I would be refunded the money as soon as the check cleared. We were done talking for the day after that, and he told me to contact him the next day. So being dumb again I did. I was starting to have doubts about what was going on, but like I said as a single mother I was thinking about how if the job was legit it would mean a better future for me and my child. I bout another $500 in amazon gift cards after he told me to, and sent pictures of those to him as well the receipts for them. After doing this he said that he would be able to order the materials. Later the same day he contacted me with an update saying that I would need to send another $500 so that the rest of the materials could be ordered. I told him that I did not have another $500 to give him because I had used all that was available to me. He told me that I should find a way as I would be reimbursed when the check cleared and that I needed to get my materials so that I could be trained with the other new employees. I told him I was not sending anymore money, and that I was trying really hard to believe that this was not a scam. He reassured me that it was not a scam, but I did not send anymore money. I even received an employment letter as well as a W-4 form, and I filled them out and sent it back to him even after having doubts. I should not have done that. I do not want this to happen to anyone else, so please be on the lookout.