Scammed: Boy, Do I Feel Foolish

Yes, you read that right.  I got scammed. I thought I was too smart to ever let that ever happen to me.  I always heard of it happening to others, and thought, how could they let that happen?  Couldn't they see? 

I will start at the begining.  I have been on a constant search for some legit work to do at home.  There are circumstances that prevent me from getting work outside my home.  I found this website that said I could work from home, be my own boss, make good money.  Those are all the things I wanted.  So, I signed up.  At first I was excited to start.  My job would be calling potential employees and offer them a job.  The company would supply me with my leads and they would never discourage me from finding my own either. 

 My first few days were going smooth considering I did'nt know what I was doing, but I got the hang of it and I actually enjoyed the work.  Then I had clients asking some questions about the business.  I had to try to work around the questions because I did not know the answers myself.  I got to wonderin about these questions myself, so I contacted my manager to get some answers.  She was even better than I at getting around the original question.  Throughout the week, I asked several questions that came from clients.  I started to wonder.

The kicker came at the end of the week.  A client called me and said she was interested in joining if I could give her an address to the corporate office.  She told me that she call the corporate office and was told to look on the Better Business Bureau, they are listed there.  The client could not find an address there.  So, I started looking in the paperwork that I had and realized, I didn't have one either.  I contacted my manager about and was told that we are not obligated to give out that information because we work from home and should not give out our home address.  Ah, that's not what I asked!  RED FLAG ALERT!

I decided that I was not going to call anymore clients until I did some research myself.  I checked out the Better Business Bureau, a place they claimed they were listed.  Nothing.  They also claimed that they were listed under the "authorized business catagory with the IRS".  Sorry, I could not come up with any such type of listing.  I thought I would try doing a search on their telephone number.  Still coming up empty.  My searches were coming up empty, RED FLAG!

I took a few minutes to discuss this with my husband, who stands behind me 100% in any venture I choose, and we decided that I owe the manager an e-mail.  I told the manger that I could not ethically call anymore clients to offer them a job with a company the I myself was now not sure existed and they could deposit my weeks payroll check to PayPal.  Well, I got back sort of a snotty reply indicating that I am not money motivated and I also did not have a professional attitude, both of which were things they were looking for in employees, and that she would forward my resignation on to corporate.  She also said my paycheck would be there by 7 pm tonight as that is the time of payday.  Weird payday?

That whole week was quite an experience. One I guess I will have to chalk up as a learning experience and grow from there.  What? You want to hear the end of the story?  Alright, I'll tell you.  That week, I put in 40+ hours of work.  There was a quota to meet, which I already knew I did not make.   I think the quota was unresonable.  Anyway, I went to my PayPal account at 7:00 and found nothing.  Alright, did I get kicked again? Finally at 9:00pm that night, there was something there.  A whopping $32.  I just shook my head. 

I am now on a quest for my own homebusiness.  I have a few ideas that are floating around in my head.  I think I will stick to something of my own so that I don't get burned again and I won't ever have to feel foolish again.

History in the Making

We are witnessing history in the making.  Our first elected African American president.  Wow, what things we will have to tell our grandchildren.  What a victory of the African American community and my granddaughter.  You see, she is part African American.  I hope that this monumental event will ease racial tension even more.  I remember the race riots of the 60's.  I was too young to understand what was going on, but I knew it as not good.  The African American people lived on the north side of the city and the white people lived on the south side.  The two sides were divided by viaducts, long draw bridges over the river where that ships used to come into port.  During the riots, those bridges would be filled with protesters both black and white walking toward the white side of town.  My husband is a little older than me and lived near those viaducts during the riots.  He said he remembers tear gas cans on his porch.  Ugly and scarey scene for a young child. 

Thank goodness we seem to have gotten out of that mode.  It seems like racial tension has subsided a bit, unless we are just becoming so used to it that it does not phase us.  We can never let racism just phase us.  It is real and it happens to people everyday.  I worry for my granddaughter that she may someday be descriminated against because of her heritage, but that why it is even more important to teach her about her heritage.  I never want her to forget that she is African American.  What a wonderful heritage she has.  I look at it this way, she has the best of both worlds, especially now with an African American president.  I wish him luck.  Be proud of your heritage and Mr. Obama's whether you voted for him or not.  God Bless the USA!