Sharing my experience with my 1st job scam

I was on the old boards and never got around to signing up for 2.0. However today I had an experience with my first job scam (I'm a 94er). Essentially I had an Auto Dealer invite me to an interview where the guy failed to reveal that he did not actually work for the car dealership at all, but was a trainer for a company that partners with Car Dealerships to get people to come to their 3 day sales training and pay $500 for the experience... With no guarantee of a job. Below is my email to the Dealership and The company AutoMax.

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Thank you for the opportunity to interview today. However, I don't feel very comfortable at the moment. After being led to believe I was interviewing with someone from the actual dealership not a trainer from the 3rd party company doing the training, after no mention of the money I would have to pay to attend this class during the interview. I Decided to reread the job post where the fine print pointed out I was not applying for the dealership at all just signing up for a class, I decided not to attend the training tomorrow. I feel very betrayed and embarrassed... After having what I thought was one of my better interviews since I've been unemployed these past few years, I called my friends and parents to let them know the good news, that things where going to start getting better now... then had to call them all back to let them know I was scammed. I don't hold you guys totally responsible, Libertyville Nissan is now on my list of shady businesses as well... I will be letting everyone I run across know this until I calm down after the embarrassing events these 2 evil businesses have put me through.

Here are the clues that I should have noticed leading to my eventual scamming.

Jane Emailed me - Jane wasn't an @LibertyvilleNissan address or something similar. Jane has no last name and an unprofessional 1400 attached to her email address and it's tied to @verizon. Multiple claims have Jane using names such as Paul, while keeping the Jane1400@Verizon.

Awkward Interview Process - When I showed up to the interview 15 minutes early I walked in to the Nissan branch. Inside there were customers walking around and a few sales people. When I asked to speak with Anthony I was directed to the Volkswagen building where it was eerily empty. 15 minutes early, I walked around the showroom looking for someone to talk to and ultimately locate Anthony. After finding him I was instructed to fill out an application. With my interview scheduled at 10:30am I was surprised to not be invited into Anthony's "Office" until an hour and 15 or so after my appointment. Through my years interviewing people I would have never made a potential employee wait that long and surely would apologize (which didn't happen) and applaud this prospects prompt early arrival.

Inside the Office - I sit down and immediately notice Anthony has multiple magazines from 2009 with his picture on the cover. This surely means Anthony is a big player and this dealership is very successful and lucky to have such a successful General Manager. Wait... Did Anthony tell me what he does at Libertyville Nissan. Ah no big deal he has a big office and of course you can trust a man on the cover of a magazine.

The Questions - I'm thinking to myself... Kind of nervous. This is a new industry to me. I hope he is forgiving of my lack of actual car knowledge and respects me as a salesman and person that has strong abilities to connect with customers and understand their needs while guiding them along the path to an investment we are both comfortable with. Or we can just play games.... Anthony plays word association with me... I'll say a word then you say the first thing that comes to your mind.... Ok go... Scam. _______. Did you say Mark, Fool, Manipulated? If you did that's what I would have said too. Would have also excepted Money. Which was not talked about at all during the interview. No Pay scale, incentives bonuses nothing.

Wrapping up the interview - Anthony gives me a look that I've waited almost 2 years for... The look said I'm not sure about you yet but I'm willing to take a shot on you if you can prove your passion for this job. I started belting out with the frustration of job searching fueling my message. I can do this I say. Anthony seemingly agrees and offers me an invitation to the "Dinner for shmucks" type training that will begin promptly at 9:30 tomorrow. I pump my fist in my head and say I finally did it. I'm going to be ok after all. My life is going to be so much better now.

Oh yeah I'm really good at computers and stuff - So I go on a little site called Google to prepare for this training tomorrow get an idea of what I'm in for. Wait... First search result... Automax scam. That can't be right.... $500??? I don't have $500 I could barely afford the gas to get here... Oh that's fine the dealership is gonna give me a $2500 bonus... After 90 days... wait hold on. Let me email Anthony and ask him what this is all about... But I didn't get a card. Oh yeah Linkedin. Anthony and I had an interview it's acceptable to find his information on the popular business site... Oh here he is... Ok Ok Ok so Anthony is not a big shot at Libertyville Nissan... He's a trainer for Automax. But he used words like "we use this company called Automax" I thought implied his role with Liberty Auto Plaza... It says he went through a training class just like this before he started selling cars (Credit the AutoMax website) Doesn't he think I'd like to know I'm not talking to a Liberty Auto Plaza employee then??? Now this is all making sense... I wasn't supposed to piece this puzzle together... Now let me see what people are saying about this training... (quotes) "Not really car sales training" "Not everyone stayed after the mention of $500" "We weren't guaranteed jobs" "I was told not to talk to the dealership employees about this training" "Most of it was just motivational speaking and glorifying Salesmen jobs with promises of big Money". "We were told the dealership we applied for didn't have anymore positions open" "I called the dealership during a break and they said they were not hiring" You get the picture. And you all know everything about those statements as well.

I know that your company has been in business since 1997. So the likelihood of me changing this is very slim. But after the embarrassment I suffered after telling my friends and family that I'm going to start working soon, I decided to take my anger out on the business that can suffer. Sadly the dealership will be topic of choice for the next few weeks. Thanks Twitter. and I will resume my job hunt with honest companies.

If this wasn't a scam and the dealer was looking to hire and I would have been a good fit. I don't think I could work for a company that miss lead me like this. The lack of details, the whole I'm not lying if I don't mention attitude, the affiliation with dishonest companies like AutoMax. Well I deserve more than that.

Thank You again.

Anytime they you ask you for money up-front, flags should go up immediately. This is one of the big tell-tale signs of a scam. Legitimate companies pay the cost of training their employees. This is part of the costs associated with hiring new employees (although in this economy, training has become a thing of the past in most places).

Sounds like you got out in time. Good for you!