A Real Chance Incorporated, A Real Chance Inc, A Real Chance, ARC Absolutely Not Legitimate: Thieves of Money and Personal Information North Charleston SC Internet

The founder of A Real Chance Incorporated has attempted to defend the indefensible on Ripoff Report and elsewhere, yet the actions of ARC indicate that something is awry with ARC and that this is not a legitimate entity proffering real work-from-home positions doing good for a grant-giving, people-helping nonprofit company. The founder would have you believe ARC is the woebegone victim of libel or defamation, yet the many folks who have fallen into the ARC trap and given money and sensitive personal information to ARC with nothing in return are the actual victims.

After a quick phone interview and after an offer is made, A Real Chance Incorporated takes potential contractors' money and collects their personal information (including date of birth and social security number) under the guise of conducting a background check. Paying a potential employer, especially one that claims to be a do-good nonprofit like ARC purports to be, isn't that uncommon or necessarily even a red flag, especially one that poses as well as ARC (ARC is even registered as a charity in South Carolina, but there are many bogus nonprofits out there).

Once the new hire has passed the background check (if there's even a background check - ARC refuses to share the results or give the name of the company supposedly doing the background check, so it's unclear what ARC actually does with the money and personal information given to them), the new hire submits new hire documents, including W-9 (requiring yet again that a social security number be given) and banking information for direct deposit. Eventually, the contractor who thought they were hired realizes that there is no job, despite the occasional email from ARC claiming they're just getting organized or finalizing internal audits before continuing the onboarding/hiring/scheduling process.

After being strung along for over six months with excuses (unexpected setbacks, finalizing schedules, their email was hacked, etc.), I realized I actually paid ARC to take all of my personal information. A Real Chance's web site says those hired as contractors will be reimbursed the fee for the background check, but I get rude replies to my emails to their bogus accounts payable “department” when I ask about getting my money back, as well as getting paid for the small amount of "training" they had me do; the answers conflict - in the same email reply from ARC, I was told their payments processor would reimburse my background check fee, but was told a few lines later that they would make payments via PayPal (note they never asked for a PayPal address to which payment may be made). To date, there have been no payments or reimbursements made, and I was told not to email them more than once every two weeks asking for my money.

ARC will not allow me access to my own background check results or provide the contact information of the company supposedly doing the background checks. This leads one to believe this is a bogus entity with no purpose other than collecting money and sensitive personal information from job seekers. When it became apparent in Spring 2016 that something was awry with ARC, ARC attempted to quell concerns by offering identity monitoring through a well-known provider of such services; again I fell for the ruse and took this to be a sign that perhaps ARC was a legitimate nonprofit that had simply made mistakes and mismanaged its hiring processes - but then I received an expensive bill and phone calls from the identity monitoring company seeking payment for its services; upon speaking with the identity monitoring company, I learned that ARC was delinquent and as such, the identity monitoring company was reaching out to those of us supposedly hired in order to collect payment. When I told ARC of this problem, I was initially told ARC was working on paying the identity monitoring company (this never happened), then I was later told I was on my own in dealing with getting the monitoring company to cease trying to collect from me monies owed by ARC.

Now that many of us have paid ARC to take our personal information including date of birth, social security number, and banking information (nor have we received payment for the faux training exercise we did), we are now being annoyed by the identity monitoring company seeking payment for something supposedly paid for by A Real Chance. Additionally, anti-virus computer programs flag A Real Chance's and its associated organizations' web sites as malicious. What's more bothersome than being duped or being taken for a few dollars is the fact that many of us so trustingly gave our personal and financial details to A Real Chance, and the ramifications of this may be severe and long-lasting - even life-ruining.

What ARC must do is: Reimburse, without delay or excuses, every single person it has taken money from, either under the pretense of performing background checks for new hires or under the pretense of an application fee for those applying to the "company" for grants. If ARC has indeed collected money and information for legitimate background checks, it must share the background check results and the name and contact information of the company supposedly doing these checks for ARC. ARC must pay all new hires for training exercises completed. If ARC's intent was originally honorable, it needs to make a public statement and explain what went wrong. If its email systems were hacked as ARC claims, it must take every step to ensure those of us who submitted personal information to ARC have not had this information compromised. ARC must also prepare a formal, legally binding statement assuring us that it will not use the personal and financial information collected from us for any unsavory or nefarious purposes, and that it accepts all responsibility for any negative consequence that occurs due to mishandling or sharing of our information by ARC. At this point, ARC's reputation is so tarnished and its legitimacy so in doubt, it would be best for the "company" to shut down once it has made whole all those from whom it has taken money and offered nothing in return. It will also need to pay the bill indefinitely for the identity monitoring service it supposedly provided for us, as A Real Chance Inc has compromised our identities and bank accounts.