[ale] FW: linuxgruven

[jlanthripp at mindspring.com]

Perry <perryw at bellsouth.net> wrote:
> I haven't decided what I'll do about the contract that I have
> that says upon completion of the certification I'll have a job.
> I'm in an odd position, since I have the certification but never
> actually got a job.  I imagine that talking to a lawyer would be
> best, but I'm not sure I can afford one w/o an income.  We'll see.

Definitely talk with an attorney.  Find a cheap one...find a slimeball bottom-feeder.  Somebody who had to get permission from his parole officer to take the bar exam in another state so he could practice law out of state.  Preferably one who has an "associate" with a name like Guido.  Maybe even one who will work on commission.

> IMHO, the company wasn't scamming people.  There were jobs, they
> did follow through with the training.  It was a matter of piss poor
> management which lead to this failure.  Their webpage indicates
> they are restructuring, who knows what that means.

My take:  Two guys are sipping a pina colada and counting their suitcases full of unmarked, non-sequential-serial-numbered $100 bills in Rio, the rest are out of a job.  You got scammed.  So did all the people who thought they would get paid Friday.  Don't feel overly bad about it; happens to the best of us every now and then.  

I read somewhere (after a quick Alta-Vista search for "linuxgruven") that they "paid" their HR recruiters on commission (nevermind that the paychecks weren't worth the paper they were printed on...)  The last well-known example of a company whose HR recruiters were paid on commission was, I believe, run by an immigrant named Ponzi (see "Ponzi Scheme").  Or maybe I'm thinking of Amway...

In any case, try to get your cash back, but if it looks like it'll take years in court and a king's ransom to the attorney, then I'd just let it go and chalk it up to a $3500 lesson in life...

Sorry to sound so pessimistic, but I've seen more schemes of this general type than I ever thought I'd admit to, and even fell for one or two of them.  I'd bet money that within 30 days, their phone will be disconnected, their web site down, their offices vacant, and the names of the company owners will be on a fraud list published by the Postmaster General's office, and probably on a federal indictment too.  And the con-men?  They'll be living it up with offshore accounts, margaritas and senoritas.

-- perry

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