A Real Chance, United Hope Fund (arealchance.org, unitedhopefund.org) work from home scams Virginia, South Carolina

This should be titled "A Real Scam", and it is quite a brilliant one may I add. These people place work from home ads on craigslist to be a customer service rep. You go and apply, but here's the catch and where their scam comes in. You have to pay 10 dollars for a background check.

Prior to this you get a phone "interview" from a telemarketing dialer that has some southern lady on the line asking a bunch of generic questions, acting like she works in their customer service/HR department.

So, ok, no big deal your thinking. But stay with me here...a day or so later you will get an email reply saying your background check came back successful and they will direct you to take an assessment for the job. Basically a ton of questions about their false company, etc. Looks very legit and very good. 

Once that is complete, you get another auto email that says they've successfully got your assessment and will be in touch shortly to discuss a job offer. In the fine print it says, if you don't hear from us within 3 to 5 business days, please contact us.

Naturally, I didn't hear back within 5 business days (I really didn't think I would), so I emailed them. No reply (of course). Then, I emailed again and got a reply saying "we have no record of your background check or application". So I proceeded to email back and state that I could show them my bank statement with the 10 dollar charge as well as all the confirmation emails from both the background check and assessment.

I get the most unprofessional reply saying and I quote, "oh ok so you had contact with us, i will look into this for you". No name signature or nothing. Looked like someone texting from their cell phone. Needless to say, I never heard anything back. Contacted em again, and nothing (which I didn't expect to).

So folks, the scam is a good one. You get people looking for work to pay 10 dollars, which no one is gonna report or care about when they realize it's a scam. With thousands of folks in need of employment in this awful economy, you get say 1 thousand payments of 10 dollars....you do the math. Great scam! But they need to be stopped and put down. Hoping maybe someone here with power will read this and look into it.

Their website screams fraud also, but because they covered their tracks so well and appear legit, they've been getting away with this for god knows how long. So, if you see their ad, don't add to their 10 dolllar scam fund. Move on and find something legit. They do exist out there.