A Quad City woman says all she wanted was a part-time job, but was nearly taken for a ride by a phony job offer from a fake JC Penney.
''It's just a matter of being an honest person looking for an honest job'', said the woman, who only wants to be identified by her first name, Kirsten.
''I've got another grandbaby on the way and I was just wanting to do extra for my grandkids.''
Kirsten has her resume posted on several on-line job sites, and had also applied for a position at JC Penney in Northpark Mall in Davenport.
This week, she received an e-mail from George Gilbert, Human Resource Manager at JC Penney about an $11 dollar an hour, part-time job as a gift-wrapper. She sent him her on-line application and personal information, and even did a phone interview with the company.
''I honestly thought this was an honest response'', she said.
The next e-mail telling her that her job would be performed at home, raised a red flag.
''And that's when I called JC Penney and they said, no it's a hoax, and I said, oh no'', Kirsten said.
''I immediatedly called the Social Security Office, and had Equifax red flag my Social Security number'', she said.
When she called the phone number in the e-mail, there's no job at the end, just one minutes worth of music and 'please leave a message' ''.
''It's sad, it's really pathetic when somebody stoops that low and hits you beneath the belt'', said Kirsten. ''Especially with the economy right now, a lot of people are looking for work and an honest job and to be played a fool.''
'' JC Penney has a great reputation and you want to be part of their team. Not only is the company with the high reputation being scammed but so are honest people.''
Suzanne Voss, a spokesperson for Penneys at Northpark says the e-mail is bogus. ''It was a fraudulent email. This is not associated with JC Penney at all'', and asked for the e-mails so she could forward them to corporate.
It's not the first or certainly the last for the fake JC Penney email hoax. Online discussions about them go back to 2010. Voss says the store started hearing about them circulating this past Christmas, and now, it appears, they are resurfacing.
''I thought I got the job.I don't want to see anybody else get scammed. Be extremely careful is my advice'', said Kirsten, who is still looking for work. ''It's wrong''.