Victim Location 45431
Total money lost $22
Type of a scam Employment
I came across a position on Indeed.com for an Instructional Designer I at a company called We Are Big Dada Scientists (WABDS) with higher than average pay. I applied and received an invite to fill out a questionnaire the next day. It was a total of 6 questions based on my personality, working attitudes, and "favorite course authoring software". I didn’t hear back for about several weeks, then I got a phone call and an invitation to interview later in the week. The interview was battery of questions with only 60 seconds to answer each, but once again they were about my work attitudes and personality and just if I knew about the course authoring and productivity software they used. They didn’t once ask about my skills or previous work.
This was also the first time they brought up a need for me to get a certification with an organization known as the "Quality Standards Organization" (QSO). I would have to pay to register for the summer course before I could even make an appointment for the "final interview". I recieved another call where they gave me feedback about my personality and seemed positive about me. They said I didn’t have to know exactly what the software did in the final interview, just know their purposes and just focus on being myself. Again, they made the push for the certification registration. They assured me I would only have to pay for the registration and they would pay for the actual course – should I get hired with them. I stupidly paid. Then I noticed the charge went to some company called "Be Home Careers" (which I can’t find any information about), not QSO.
It was at this point I finally started catching on. I couldn’t find any of the people I’d been in contact with on the web: Brie Wega, Alex Thompson, or Kristin Veljovic. I also couldn’t find any mention of WABDS or QSO anywhere on the internet except for their websites. The WABDS website is only three pages long, has no CEO listed, no terms of service, certifications, or any official documentation like that. Same thing for the QSO website, short and not much official information. Both were also virtual office locations (one which seems to be up for leasing) in Florida. Hard to verify. So I looked them up in the chambers of commerce and ScamPulse.com – that’s when I found the other scam complaint here regarding WABDS (thank you!).
I looked further (Whois search) and found out the WABDS website has only been up since June/July of 2017. I did the same search on the HR website they had me go through (managedhumanresources.com) (March 2017) and QSO (December 2017). It’s now April 2018. WABDS claimed to be a company just now surpassing 50 people and to have been around for almost 20 years (but under the name Big Data Scientists – which also is impossible to find). Not much of a digital footprint for a company so old and involved with big data.
I cancelled the final "interview" and reached out to other instructional designers to see what they thought, only to find others going through the same scam. Someone pushed back and asked the company for credentials and got silence in return. Another further through the process has told me they’re now on a "hiring freeze" after their final interview. Despite cancelling the final interview, I still received an email telling me to be patient and that they were going to make their final hiring decision by the end of next week. Right now, the WABDS website is looking for technical writer candidates. It seems they cycle through a few different types of positions (which all can get certifications through QSO, conveniently) to change it up.