Don't Be A Victim

It was a beautiful Monday morning in the springtime of the year and I was in a rather good mood. I was on my way to a job interview dressed in my Sunday go-to-meetings.

I had been to this job-finding service the previous Friday and the nice lady had promised I would get a shot at a real job by giving her $100. It was $100 I had to scrape up.

So I scraped and scrimped and gave up $100 for the guarantee of an interview. As it turned out I got much more than an interview. I got a real lesson in the "facts of life."

I arrived at the appointed location a few minutes before the appointed time. This was Atlanta so you have to leave enough time to find parking in the downtown area; parking, by the way, which is seldom or never free.

I found the address on the print-out the nice lady at the job service had given me. I parked and walked a block or two to the location. It was a rather new-looking building and my interview was scheduled for ten AM in a suite on the fourth floor.

I took the elevator to the fourth floor and found the suite for my interview. I was extremely hopeful of finding a job so I could continue to stay in school. I was not too surprised to find a few other people there, but I was surprised when it became apparent that we would all be in the same "interview" room at the same time.

What happened next was a real life exposure to professional scam artists.

There were two "gentlemen" at the front of the room who introduced themselves and welcomed us all to the interview.

They passed around a form for us to all write down our contact information. Everything looked legit at this point. I and the others were all hoping to get a real job paying real money. But it would not turn out that way for any of us.

After the paperwork was finished one of the men conducting the interview again introduced himself and his partner for the few who had arrived a little later. I estimate they were both in their 50's. Both were well-dressed in nice-looking suits.

Their entire routine looked to be just that, a routine they had done many times before. Everything they did and said had the air of everyday normalcy; just a couple of businessmen conducting business.

The one who did most of the talking began to describe the positions they had available. It turned out to be sales. And what we would be selling were home security systems. He cited statistics about rising crime rates and had old newspaper clippings of home breakins etc. to convince us of the need for his alarm systems. The Atlanta area was a ripe and underserved market he told us.

His assistant then unpacked a large case and removed a small model for demonstration. It was a replica of a window. Yes, a window on a house. And the window was equipped with two sensors that sounded an alarm when the window was raised. The model was something that any 10th grader could have built in shop class.

While his colleague set up the "window" the spokesman explained how their security systems operated as his assistant raised and lowered the window to make the alarm sound.

But we were all just hoping to get a job so none of us realized at the time that we were being groomed for the scam.

The scam went like this. Since they would be providing those of us who were fortunate enough to land a sales position with one of their "real" security systems, it was required that we place a cash deposit for the system as good faith that we would not abscond with it.

The required deposit was $50 payable by check or cash. I was dead broke and unable to pay the deposit. After collecting cash and checks from about 15 people we were informed that they had to retrieve the real alarm systems from a nearby storage location and that we all should grab lunch while we waited for their return.

I loitered until all the other job seekers had left and approached the man who had done the talking. I told him I was dead broke and offered him my watch as collateral for my demo system. He was very sincere when he told me that I could keep my watch and that he would work out a deal for me when they returned with the alarm systems from storage.

I left in a happy mood to get a burger and fries.

Upon returning to the meeting room about an hour later I discovered the door wide open and that all the chairs and the podium had been removed. There was no sign of the two men. I checked the printout the job service lady had given me and made sure I had not mistaken the suite number. I had the right suite alright, but soon realized, along with a few more of the latest victims that we had been ripped off.

It was a crushing realization for me. I was down and out and totally broke. I was also hurt to find out that someone could be so cold and heartless in their treatment of others; preying on honest people who were looking for honest work.

It was an eye-opening experience for me. I came away from that encounter feeling so low and so helpless. It was my first real experience with the truly dark side of human nature in that form. And in the intervening years I have come to realize that such behavior is far more rampant than anyone can really calculate.

And the Internet has been a boon for those who feed on the dreams of others by enabling them to scam countless numbers of people online in a split second by offering them hyped-up promises of easy wealth and quick riches.

Such tragic stories will always be repeated because there will always be shysters and there will always be those who will fall for the hype and false promises.

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