I, having been unemployed for over a year, and looking for a job in a call center I answered the ad. I sent my resume. After a few days of not hearing anything I received this email from Mirage International Group:

Subject: RE: Screening Process

From: patricia.adams@careers-mirageintlgrp.com

Date: Wed, Nov 11, 2009 10:35 am

To: Joseph@--------

Congratulations Joseph. You have passed the screening process!

After careful evaluation, we at Mirage International Group © feel that with your experience you would be a great addition to our Customer Service team and could be a valuable asset to our company's success as we grow and move towards the future.

The next 3 steps are required by all candidates prior to employment with Mirage International Group ©.

1. Three (3) References

a. Two (2) Professional

b. One (1) Personal

· You must provide contact information and your relations.

2. Salary Request

· Mirage International Group © compensates each Customer Service Representative a rate of $22.00 to $25.00 an hour.

3. Soft Credit Verification

· We have chosen Credit Report © as a 3rd Party Company to process your free report. You will not be required to inquire with all three (3) Major Credit Bureaus, only one (1). This is very important, DO NOT EMAIL THE CREDIT REPORT. We only request that you email us the Report # provided (e.g.: 200907299280000), which is a reference to your report and not the actual FICO score. This will not determine if your application is accepted or denied, nor will it affect your credit score. This step is to validate all information to be correct and accurate. You will need to bring a hard copy of your report on the day of your orientation. Again, do not email the actual credit report. (Note: You may cancel your account immediately as soon as you have received your report.)

· Credit Report Link: http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-3546852-10660901

After gathering all the information requested. You will email the following to our HR Director.

1. Your Full Name

2. Phone Number

3. Reference

a. Professional (Name, Phone, Company, Position)

b. Professional (Name, Phone, Company, Position)

c. Personal (Name, Phone, Relations)

4. Report #

5. Salary Request

Email to: Robert Blake at robert.blake@careers-mirageintlgrp.com

Heading/Subject: Customer Service Representative

After he has reviewed your information, we will contact you to schedule an orientation.

We look forward to meeting you and have a wonderful day.

Patricia Adams, HR Administrator www.careers-mirageintlgrp.com

-----------------end of email--------------

The first (Caution) flag to come up for me was the offered rate-of-pay. $22-$25 hour is an unheard of rate-of-pay in the industry offering “call center jobs.” Remember the old saying? “If it seems to good to be true, it probably is!”

Here is where I found RED FLAG #1. The request of the “credit report.” Any business, which requests a background credit check will do such through there own sources. No company will ask a potential-employee to do the “credit workup” themselves.

No legit company will send a potential-employee to a third party website -- in this case “creditreport.com” - to “get their free credit report from a site which requires a credit/debit card so the site can charge $14.95, after the seven-day trial period for receiving personal credit information.

RED FLAG #2, for me, and certainly for anyone, is the fact the bogus-company requests your sending of the information gained from your credit report back to their HR Dept. No legit company initiates this practice. They make the point, asking me, to send the reference number to them and not the report, since the reference number is for the report and not your credit score.

I removed the word "careers" from the url; careers-mirageintlgrp.com, and checked mirageintlgrp.com. I do not know if the above site is related or not, but, its easy to see its a generic site.

This is an on-going investigation I am conducting on behalf of all of us. I can tell you for absolute sure none of these are even remotely connected to any hotel and/or casino. The above site (pictured) is pretty generic.

I'll be updating as needed and when necessary.

I checked for anything relating to Careers-Mirage Int'l Group in Portland, Or and there is nothing even close.

So, now, let me go on:

RED FLAG #3 was the URL (Universal Resource Locator - the website address) WhoIs verifying I did using: http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jsp

Here is the information I found regarding "who is" behind this url (careers-mirageintlgrp.com):

WHOIS Results for: careers-mirageintlgrp.com

Domain ID:

Domain Name: careers-mirageintlgrp.com

Created On: 08-Oct-2009 00:00:00

Expiration Date: 08-Oct-2010 00:00:00

Sponsoring Registrar: 'Check Whois' (GODADDY) (GODADDY)

Status: client_delete_prohibited,client_renew_prohibited,client_transfer_prohibited,client_update_prohibited

Name Server: ns29.domaincontrol.com

Name Server: ns30.domaincontrol.com

Registrant ID: Unknown

Registrant Name: DomainsByProxy.com

Registrant Organization: Unknown

Registrant Street1: 15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353

Registrant Street2: Unknown

Registrant Street3: Unknown

Registrant City: Scottsdale

Registrant State/Province: Arizona

Registrant Postal Code: 85260

Registrant Country: United States

Registrant Phone: Unknown

Registrant Fax: Unknown

Registrant Email: Unknown

Admin ID: Unknown

Admin Name: Private Registration

Admin Organization: Unknown

Admin Street1: 15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353

Admin Street2: Unknown

Admin Street3: Unknown

Admin City: Scottsdale

Admin State: Arizona

Admin Postal Code: 85260

Admin Country: United States

Admin Phone: (480) 624-2599

Admin Fax: (480) 624-2598

Admin Email: CAREERS-MIRAGEINTLGRP.COM@domainsbyproxy.com

-------------------end of WhoIs information------------------

Notice the last line (above) "domains by proxy." What do they do? Using this service folks can avoid having their "WhoIs Information" displayed. (Possibly, another way to hide??) Instead of getting info on the REAL people behind the domain-url (website). Domains By Proxy stand between you and the REAL people running the show.

And, the phone number goes back to an Internet service company, and not

It's perfectly legal (It's hard to believe?).

My point is to show how easy it is for someone to hide while obtaining your personal information.

If you ever question a website as to being legit or not, go to Google and type in WhoIs. Google will present you with a number of site to do a real background check (for free) of who's behind the site operation and who owns the website address.

Here is my last communications back to Careers-Mirage Intl Group:

Subject: customer service representitive

From: joe@--------.us

Date: Thu, Nov 12, 2009 2:25 pm

To: robert.blake@careers-mirageintlgrp.com

Dear Mr. Blake,

Please send me your phone number. Unfortunately, due to Internet fraud I can not provide you with anything credit related via email. I will bring them to you in-person, but, to send them over the internet is unacceptable. I'm sure you can understand such.

I'll be looking forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Joseph -----------

I have never heard another word from these people. I have noticed over in Yahoo where people can post questions, there are a lot of comments made about this company, and none are good.

I tried contacting the Oregon Dept of Unemployment who has Craigslist as part of their job searches on computers available to look for work within their offices and was told there was nothing they could do.

Because the Internet is as wide-open as the American west was in the 1800s, there is not much which can be done.

I decided to do something, and that was to write this article in the hopes it will aid others to be on the lookout and always question things when it seems to good to be true, and/or you're asked for information that should NEVER be transmitted to unknown people.

And, here's the worst of all; these “people” are aiming at the hopes of those unemployed.