Saturday, August 8, 2009

Scam Victim Arrested

What started out as excitement about a new job quickly turned into a financial and emotional roller coaster for one Texas woman. In July of 2009, Nicole Ball, a stay-at-home mother from Pasadena, Texas was offered a job by someone claiming to be with a company called Formations House processing paperwork for their clients. Nicole was ecstatic, and in this economy who would not be when they found not only a source of income but a way to do so and continue to stay at home with her young child.

She began to receive packages in the mail with instructions to process the checks in the package. She was instructed to keep a portion of the checks, for her payment, and then to forward the rest of the money along with some paperwork on to a man using the name of Stanley Clarkes.
On July 23rd she entered the bank to bring in another check that she had received, and when she brought them to the teller her whole world turn upside down . . . the bank employees brought her into an office, called the police and pressed charges against her for forgery. She was devastated. To add to this, her young daughter was with her at the time and she had to witness her mother being told that the check was a fraud, the job she thought she had was a scam, and that now she was going to be arrested and have to spend time in jail.

It is cases like this that show how significant the need for Scam Education and Awareness is, not only for the average American, but for bank employees and law enforcement. With the right questions, not only could the bank employees have seen the warning signs of a scam and warned Nicole, but they would have also realized that she was not the one that needed to be behind bars or prosecuted. With the right questions or a search warrant, the police could have seen that Nicole was not the one manufacturing these counterfeit checks that were good enough to fool bank employees. They could have reviewed the information on her computer and in her home to see that she is a victim of this scam and not the perpetrator.

Nicole’s story is far from over. She will now have to endure court proceedings and pay for legal fees all to prove that she is innocent. I hope that the law enforcement and government officials in Pasadena, Texas will step in on this matter in order to assist Nicole Ball and her young daughter. Beyond that we ask for your support and partnership in a Scam Education and Awareness Program across the country so that stories like Nicole’s will not happen to others.

Shawn Mosch
Co-Founder of ScamVictimsUnited.com
There is strength in numbers!

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http://www.retaggr.com/page/ShawnMosch

3 comments:

  1. This has NOTHING to do with FORMATIONS HOUSE we have NEVER ever advertised such a position.
    We try to track down individuals who are pretending to be us, and have the adverts removed, but as this is the internet as soon as we are able to remove one advert another pops up. We understand this forums role in warning people about jobs scam.
    If any one has further information that can help us track down the individuals who are fraudulently using our name please email us at security@formationshouse.com

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  2. i was scammed from a fake cashiers check in 2005 and now im facing prison time and all the proof i had is gone.so ill see if the law believes me or not on nov 3rd 2010

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  3. Keep us in the loop on what happens in your case. Find a good lawyer! You might want to contact one of the lawyers here http://pubcit.typepad.com/clpblog/

    ReplyDelete