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Health-Mor Incorporated, North East Ohio
Environmental,
and the Unethical Business Practices I Fell For
I created this webpage because I was so disappointed in myself. I moved to Canton, OH in May of 2009 to begin a new life with my girlfriend. We have our own apartment, and were living very cheaply in order for things to work. I decided one day early in September to begin looking for more steady work via traditional means: going out to area businesses, newspaper classifieds, and more than anything: online. I'd used craigslist.org, and have had a mixed experience up until now. When you're selling your used computer or even a home gym, or probably just about anything else (I've seen 'therapeutic massage' services offered plenty of times!) the success rate is probably pretty good considering craigslist is free. Jobs, on the other hand, seem to be a rare commodity at this and most all sites, and the ones that are real are usually temporary. There's all kinds of obvious scams on craigslist, and you're even warned at about every 3rd turn that there are scammers out here. Hell, I've even created a part of the KBA4 PC Repair site devoted solely to my experiences with the '419' scam.
Getting back to the purpose of this page. I have been e-mailing companies left and right since September, looking for anything that fits my needs. Most responses I get are canned and contain referral-laced links to data-mining websites. Anyone that needs your credit score to proceed with considering you for work is a scammer. Anyone that asks you to pay them to hire you is a scammer. These are easy to understand concepts, very obvious to most, in fact. But when you see a listing for something vague such as 'Customer Service', listing your duties just as vaguely, claiming that many positions are available including sales, delivery, service-rep, management, etc., and one that lists an hourly rate of $15, it's sometimes hard to see that it's a scam- especially when you need money. And especially when they don't want you to e-mail them, but rather they want you to call them 'ASAP' to schedule a next-day interview. Skeptical as I am, I printed one of these postings out and began my journey towards self-disappointment...
I found the posting on a Friday and called on Monday morning. The individual I spoke with was very short on the phone: 'are you calling about the craigslist posting?', 'just a sec while I put these phones on hold', 'the company is north east Ohio environmental, there are many positions open including sales, delivery, etc. etc., and I am scheduling interviews for tomorrow; which would be best for you: 2 or 4 PM?'. I chose 2pm and was told that I would be interviewing with a 'Mr. Martin', 'the address is 1430 Whipple Ave NW in Canton, in the Meyers Lake Plaza; we're in a former First America Cash-Advance storefront.'
Tuesday afternoon right at 2:00 I arrived and sure enough it was a former store. In the window was a very crudely written sign stating that this was 'north east Ohio environmental'. wow, such low-overhead. Just FYI this plaza where they were is very run-down and out of the 15 or so available spaces just 3-4 are filled by a business, the rest being empty. Well I walk to the door and am greeted by a man who asks if I'm here for an interview. I say yes, with Mr. Martin, and he says that is who he is, and to come on back, have a seat in the back room. I proceed to the back of the store, through a door where another 20 or so people are sitting. We all fill out forms which ask for Name, Address, Phone, and they did ask for a Social Security Number; I don't write mine but I'm sure a good half of the people there did. After waiting about 15 minutes, Mr. Martin comes jogging in, in a hyped mood exclaiming 'good afternoon!!!'. This inspires about 1/3 of us to say it back, so he proceeds with another 'good afternoon!!!!!!', and another to get us feeling hyped. What proceeded was three days of unpaid education about a product we were to sell. We were being recruited as a salesforce to line the bottom of a pyramid scheme (see link below).
I am going to summarize just exactly what happened and hopefully future google users such as myself will find out all they need to know about this particular scam before they lose a week of time to look for a real job and end up where I am.
Click for a Detailed Account of My Experience 10/20/2009-10/25/2009
Links and Sources
Confessions of a Sales Trainer: The Training Days
RipoffReport:
Scott Martin
Google Results: Scott Martin Health Mor
Google Results: Health-Mor scam
My Craigslist Posts
http://akroncanton.craigslist.org/csr/1437622803.html
http://akroncanton.craigslist.org/csr/1439681228.html
http://akroncanton.craigslist.org/csr/1444863857.html
http://akroncanton.craigslist.org/csr/1447766533.html
http://akroncanton.craigslist.org/lab/1447789329.html
http://akroncanton.craigslist.org/ofc/1448019817.html
http://akroncanton.craigslist.org/csr/1456510368.html
http://akroncanton.craigslist.org/csr/1456691616.html
Other
http://www.manta.com/coms2/dnbcompany_4h163
http://www.mystatelist.com/classified.php?n=1155
http://www.gypsybug.com/viewresult.php?id=30720&page=4&locationtype=state&locationname=&radius=
Google will index this search using the following keywords:
Health-Mor Incorporated, HMI, North East Ohio Environmental, N.E.O. Environmental, Canton, Ohio, Meyers Lake Plaza, craigslist scam, 330-546-7024, 330-546-7054, First America Cash Advance, 1430 Whipple Ave. NW, Filter Queen, Defender 360, Majestic 360SS, Vacuum, Sweeper, Air Purifier, FDA Class II, Indoor Air Quality Specialist Recruit, I.A.Q.S.R., Top Gun, Top Gun of Guns, Edge Success Program, Jump Start, Pyramid Scheme, MLM, MTM, Multi-Level-Marketing, Multi-Tiered-Marketing, Scott Martin, David Martin, D.S. Martin, D. Scott Martin, David S. Martin, David Scott Martin, Scott Martin Canton Ohio, John Givens, John Glomb, John Glumb, John Glom, John Glum, Jon Givens, Jon Glomb, Jon Glumb, Jon Glom, Jon Glum, Dan Dugan, Cleveland, Strongsville, Pittsburgh, Pre-BMI Workshop, Eckerd College
http://akroncanton.craigslist.org/csr/1437622803.html