Published: April 03, 2008 04:42 pm            

Ky. woman believes she was victimized by ‘nanny scam’

RICHMOND, Ky. — Leslie Horn had her whole plan figured out.

As a 36-year-old Richmond mother, she already had experience working with children. The Richmond Register classified advertisement said the only pre-requisite for the $700/week nanny job was that the right candidate “must love kids.”

Of course, that was no problem.

If the nanny company wanted references, they could talk to her kids’ teachers to find out what great kids they are and how well they are doing in school, she said.

“I just had it all down,” Horn said. “I thought, man, if I could get $700 a week for what I’m doing now, how perfect would that be?”

Horn already had visions of caring for the 3-year-old girl and 4-year-old boy who needed a nanny — running errands for the family, doing light housework, all with her own kids in tow. She even talked to a friend who encouraged her on Sunday morning to get her name out there as soon as possible for such a great opportunity.

But it wasn’t long after Horn gave her credit card number to the company that she began to realize something wasn’t right, she said.



$10 charge

The advertisement directed interested nannies to call 1-678-318-3650 — a Georgia phone number. After the first ring, an answering machine picks up with a friendly man’s voice.

“Hi,” it says. “If you’re responding to the ad in the paper, we’re looking for an energetic, fun-loving individual that can perform light housekeeping, can drive and most of all loves children. The salary is $700 per week and upon review of an application, we would call you in for an interview. You may apply immediately for this position at www.wonderfulnanny.com.”

Horn followed the message’s directions to the Web site, which identifies the company as Rodney J. Murphy and Associates and claims, “We guarantee a perfect match.” A link on the left-hand side of the page directs those looking for employment to a new page, identifying the company as a “professional nanny placement” service serving the United States and Canada. A single job opportunity is listed with no details about where the job is located.

At the bottom of the page, a new link takes job seekers to a PayPal account, where they are asked to give up personal information along with their credit card numbers to pay a $10 — purportedly refundable — registration fee.

“Once I put in my credit card number, it just asked for like my name, phone number, address — it looked just like a job application,” Horn said. “It asked for references, how long I’ve known them and their addresses and phone numbers.”

The application asked if Horn would be willing to do housekeeping and errand running for extra money.

“Oh, it just all sounded so good,” she said. “It’s silly. I just thought, this is crazy. When it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.”

Within an hour, Horn said she called and canceled her credit card.

“They e-mailed me and said they received my application,” Horn said. “That was on Sunday. Then Wednesday, he actually e-mailed and said that the job position had been filled and they would keep my application on file for future families that needed nannies.”

But, the job listing still is posted online, the voice mail still is set up referring applicants to the Web site and the Web site still is taking job seekers’ money.



Cross-country business

Horn is not the only nanny whose hopes of securing the seemingly-perfect job were dashed. After deciding she’d been scammed, she got online and began looking for information about Rodney J. Murphy and was led to hundreds of women reporting the same experience, she said.

“I saw one of those ads posted in my newspaper (Cincinnati) and was thinking about calling them about the position,” one nanny said on NannyNetwork.com. “I just checked the numbers and they are the same as the Web site!”

“I just looked at the Web site and sure enough, it’s the SAME AD that I ‘applied for’ four years ago,” another nanny posted. “I can’t believe they got away with this!”

Another Web site, 800Notes.com, which is a search engine to verify phone numbers, lists two pages of comments about the advertised phone number. Some were scammed, others searched the Internet for details before giving their personal information and happened upon the site.

Comments were posted by people in Macon, Mo., Charleston, W.Va., Newport News, Va., Chicago, Durango, Colo., Corning, N.Y., and more. In Kentucky, commenters wrote they had seen the ads both in Lexington and Frankfort newspapers as well.

“I found a forum and it was a lot of different women applying for the job, and people said they had applied for jobs and said they never got a response from them,” Horn said. “One lady lived in Atlanta and found out (the address) was a vacant building.”

After canceling her credit card, Horn said the credit company asked if she wanted to fight the $10 charge. She declined.

“I don’t think he is using people’s credit card (for expensive purchases,)” Horn said. “I think he is merely going on the $10, maybe using the credit cards to run the next ad in the paper. If there are 1,000 people who respond to that, look at what he’s making. If anyone wanted to push it, he could be found, but that’s the thing. Who is going to push it over losing $10?”



Kelly Foreman writes for the Richmond (Ky.) Register. Ronica Shannon also contributed to the story.

        

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