Some companies love misery

“There’s always people out there willing to take advantage of people’s misery.

Chris Thetford

Director of communications for the Better Business Bureau of Eastern Missouri and Southern Illinois

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS — Joe Epstein’s heart did a little flip-flop when he opened an e-mail from a staffing firm that promised a portal to a new job.

“When you’re in this situation, it really picks you up,” said Epstein, 58. Nearly a year after being laid off from his job as an information technology sales rep, he finds himself in a job search for the first time in a quarter-century.

As Epstein learned in the resulting telephone conversation, an ailing economy can bring out the worst in people: companies that prey on the unemployed in their struggle to find work.

Epstein said a “very nice, very positive” woman representing the staffing firm plucked his r sum from a job search engine and promised that her company could brush up his r sum , provide interview tips and give him access to exclusive job listings.

The price — $4,000.

Epstein turned it down, as well as subsequent follow-up pitches from the firm.

“Once you give them your credit card, you’re up a creek,” said the Brentwood, Mo., resident.

Consumer protection advocates say his reasoning is dead-on. In 2007, the Consumer Protection Agency received almost 6,000 complaints about headhunters and employment and placement agencies. And that was two years before the economy threw an estimated 3.6 million Americans out of work.

“There’s always people out there willing to take advantage of people’s misery,” said Chris Thetford, director of communications for the Better Business Bureau of Eastern Missouri and Southern Illinois. “I’ve never met anyone who had to pay to get a legitimate job.”

Nationally, authorities are finding examples of job scammers and taking action. For example, the Federal Trade Commission filed a federal court complaint in November against a Georgia firm that was charging $120 to $140 for materials it claimed would help applicants pass a U.S. Postal Service qualifying exam.

In early 2008, the Ohio attorney general fined a personnel service for enticing clients to pay $389 for a connection to nonexistent jobs.

Jeannette Hoss of East Carondelet, Ill., has been on the receiving end of similar pitches since starting her job hunt in December. She estimates she has e-mailed her r sum in response to Craigslist.com ads nearly a 100 times trying to land a position in health insurance, human resources or other fields.

Of those inquiries, Hoss, 30, estimates fully a third have triggered automatic responses that amount to little more than spam.

Other respondents have sent job applications embedded with requests for money or other personal information.

Given the economic climate, consumer advocates say, the allegations of bogus or exploitative employment opportunities starting to trickle in have the potential to turn into a torrent.

“We definitely expect to see more people falling for job-hunting scams with the economy being what it is,” said Travis Ford, a spokesman for the Missouri attorney general’s office.