News Channel 5 Nashville Tn

Scammers Preying On Summer Job Seekers

By: Heather Graf

Nashville, Tenn. - A warning for summer job seekers: you're not the only one keeping an eye on the 'Help Wanted' section.

The Better Business Bureau of Middle Tennessee says that every year right around this time, con artists start preying on people looking for work.

"The summer months are a prime time for this," said BBB President Kathleen Calligan.  "Lots of people are looking for seasonal jobs; students are between graduation and finding employment, and scam artists know this."

It's a warning a Madison resident, Glenda McCormack, wishes she'd known about.

"You're out of work, trying to make ends meet, and people are having hard times.  So it really angers me," she said.

McCormack responded to a job advertisement she saw on Craigslist.  The ad appeared to be posted by a pastor whose ministry often travels from city to city, and initially, Glenda says it made perfect sense.

"I'm thinking this is someone legit because I did pull his website up, and I thought, 'Well this is a legitimate business, and this individual is real,' so I continued to correspond back and forth with them," said McCormack.

When a $2,800 check arrived in the mail, she started to grow suspicious.

"They told me to go ahead and deposit it into my account then withdraw the full amount," she recalls.  "Then they wanted me to keep $600 for myself and send them the rest back via Western Union."

That's one of the first things Craigslist advises its users against.  McCormack refused to fall for it.

"I have a computer, and I use it wisely, and I went on there and did some investigating," she said.

Calligan says she did the right thing and advises others to do the same.

"It's an elaborate scam, and a lot of people can't possibly understand if they have a check in hand, how can it go wrong," she said.

McCormack quickly found the pastor's real website - complete with a fraud warning listed at the top of the page.  

"I then informed them that I'm aware it's a fraud, and I have no intentions of cashing this check.  But they continue to email me, urging me to deposit the check into my account," she said.

McCormack says she shared her story with News Channel 5 in hopes of helping others avoid a similar scam.

"Because the only person that's going to pay for this is me, had I deposited it into my account.  So I wanted to make other people aware of this," she said.

Homeless Struggle With Extreme Heat | Nashville, Tennessee | News ...

The near-record temperatures forecasted for this week are an inconvenience for most people. For Nashville’s homeless population, they can be dangerous.

“We’ve seen a trend for the last couple of years, it’s getting hotter and staying hotter actually longer than it normally does,” said Edward Grimes, with the Nashville Rescue Mission. “And when that happens, we really get concerned about things like heat stroke and dehydration.

Taste of the Town, A Collection of Recipes from News Channel 5's Talk of the Town

Plunkett's Entertainment & Media Industry Almanac 2006, The Only Complete Guide to the Technologies and Companies Changing the Way the World Shares Entertainment and Information

Insiders' Guide to Nashville, 7th

Broadcasting & cable

Engineering news-record