It's patently amazing to me how some individuals will leap to the defense of obvious scams and ripoffs. They always fall within two categories...
1. High-level employee of the company with a vested interest in prolonging the scam and bilking more victims. These are of course the worst, because they are well aware of the lies and deception they proliferate to line their pockets. They are simply con men/women trying to snag more suckers with plenty of damage control and spin. They will offer a million reasons why it is "your fault" for "giving up", or "not taking it seriously enough", or "believing lies about us". Unfortunately, they will offer ZERO hard, verifiable evidence to back up their claims of legitimate, amazing wealth opportunities.
Thankfully, most sane individuals can easily see through such nonsense, but I do feel sorry for those who buy into it (see below). Facts are easily checked online, and any business that shows up repeatedly in complaints boards, FTC investigations, and the like are to be avoided.
2. A sucker. These are simply gullible victims who strive to deny that
they have been taken by gloriously praising the scammers and insisting that "The money is about to come rolling in!" These are relatively rare, by comparison, and are to be pitied, but never taken seriously.
Various tactics that give away money-making job opportunity scams include...
1. Posts saying how sorry they feel for any who backed out or didn't sign up.
2. Unverifiable posts about how much money they made over X amount of time.
3. Unverifiable claims that they have been in business for X amount of years, and are registered with such-and-such licensing agency.
4. Unverifiable posts about how much money the company as a whole has made over X number of years.
5. Posts about "You'll see!" or "The money's about to come rolling in!"
6. Posts about how lavish their lifestyle is since they signed up, with bragging about cars, houses, luxury items, etc. These are 'hooks' intended to catch reader's imaginations.
7. Unverifiable lists of clients, especially big businesses. Name dropping is very common, and difficult to verify.
8. Vague job descriptions with impressive titles, such as "Financial Manager" or "Account Executive"
9. Ridiculously low qualifications. Some don't even require a high school degree. Believe me, if you're going to make $5000 a month, you better have at least a Master's in something.
10. Little or no contact information. Email-only contact information is a dead giveaway. P.O. boxes vs. physical addresses are another. Storefront addresses given are often completely false, and some even give contact data for another, completely unrelated company!
11. Generic sales pitches showing up in your inbox with vague details, but large payouts promised for few hours worked.
12. Multiple incarnations (aliases). Basically the same sales pitch from several different companies with different websites that all look oddly similar. This hides their identity and makes sure that their new company name isn't associated with their scammy reputation. In reality, it is all the same company trying to stay ahead of the scam reports.
13. Any hint of investigation by the FTC, FBI, SEC, etc.
14. Any invitation to any kind of seminar, whether they outright lie by calling it a "one-on-one interview" or actually admit it's a sales pitch.
15. Any mention at any time of a "sales kit", "membership fee", "licensing fee", or any other reason to separate you from any amount of cash.
16. Pressure of any kind. Repeated calls, stopping by your house uninvited, getting angry with you for hesitating, demanding action quickly because it's a "limited opportunity", fast-talking, repeated mentions of how much money you will make, quick subject changes when talking about costs, etc.
There are other flags of course, but those are the most telling. ALWAYS do your research, and remember that if you're job hunting, you are not looking to pay for work. Real employers do not charge you money. They pay you!
Do whatever you can to report these scum to any job search engine they show up on. Monster generally listens, although CareerPath will take money from anyone, and does nothing to filter the scammers.
By the way, it took only five minutes to find out everything I need to know about "Transtech Merchant Group" and all of its many aliases.
(((REDACTED)))
STEER CLEAR!!!!!!!
CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.