Troubleshooter: Man tricks hundreds with online job offers
There are a lot of online job offers out there, and among those offers are scam artists looking to take advantage of you.
In this case, an insurance agent promised people work, but instead used them to steal more than $100,000.
Imagine this scenario: after months of looking for a job online, you find an opportunity to be trained and sell life insurance.
"He posted this job opening, and a lot of people applied...this was back when the economy was not good so he had a lot of applicants," said U.S. Postal Inspector Christopher Davis.
"He" is William Wagner, a former insurance agent who knew the business, specifically the bonus system.
"If you sell three group life insurances for a business, you got a T-90 bonus, which is like $2,500," Davis said.
Wagner reached out to applicants and had them fill out paperwork with all of their personal information.
"He would call these applicants in, tell them 'you're going to be hired, get your insurance license, you'll be selling life insurance,'" Davis explained.
Wagner promised they would be trained and they would soon be on the path to selling life insurance. He also promised one more thing.
"'You're going to sign up for free health, life insurance for 90 days, you get free life insurance for 90, until I find you a job,'" Davis said, detailing Wagner's pitch to new employees.
There were 154 victims and over $160,000 in losses to the insurance company from bonuses paid to Wagner that he didn't deserve.
"It's kind of a sad story...that a lot of these people, some of the victims we talked to had been out of work for months and months thinking they were going to get a job, and Mr. Wagner never got them a job."
Plus, all of these job applicants now had their personal information in the hands of scam artists. Bottom line, always protect your personal information.
"Red flags should have came up when you didn't get a job," Davis said.
Wagner was sentenced to 14 months and ordered to pay $160,000 in restitution.
Online job offers to be avoided include those where the employer sends you a check and wants you to cash it and send money to people. Also, never get involved in re-shipping of items that are sent to your home.
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