API 3 A, MARKETING ADVANTAGE, ADVANTAGE SPORTS, ADVANTAGE PROMOTIONS, AAA MARKETING, API, ALL START MARKETING, SCORE ONE, TYLER MARTIN, CAMERON MORRISON, MORGAN SMITH, Larry O'Brian, Jim, API PUBLISHING Liars put you to work scamming local businesses and don't pay. Waxhaw, North Carolina

This "company" has been around for quite some time under a variety of names, but their scam has not changed. They got me under the alias "API" of which there was nothing written. They sent me an unsolicited email through Monster.com and said that they liked my resume and wanted an interview.

I showed up to the interview (which was held in a Regus office) and was interviewed by a thin, tall, blonde girl named Lyndsey or Lindsey. She gave me a folder with some information in it, a couple of their infantile looking sports posters, and told me to call some guy named "Jim" the next morning in North Carolina for a phone interview. Jim (who I now believe is also known as "Larry O'Brian" is a blowhard with a Northeastern accent). Jim hired me immediately and instructed me to go to the school in which I had a poster - it turned out to be about an hour drive from my home - and call him in the morning. I did so. He then had me go to local business and try to sell ads for the posters, which were also supposed to benefit the local school. I ended up selling two ads that day but had a very hard time of it after that. I later found out why.

This group DOES NOT have a relationship with the schools like they tell you they do. The school has no idea what you're doing, and I best I could tell the school never gets any posters, although they do seem willing to send one to the people who purchase ads. Many of the businesses I called on seemed to think it was a scam. It was only after I got some mail from "API" (more order forms and posters) that I saw a different name: "Advantage" on their return address. They're in the business of using poor saps who need work to sell ads then they simply keep the money. Stay far, far away from them. You'll only waste time and gas money, and you'll unwittingly be part of a scam in the process.