Tracking down a scammer

By Kelly Foreman
RICHMOND REGISTER (RICHMOND, Ky.)

RICHMOND, Ky. April 04, 2008 11:09 am

— More than 100 complaints have been filed with the Better Business Bureau of Atlanta against Rodney J. Murphy and Associates, a purported professional nanny service who advertised recently in the Richmond (Ky.) Register.
“They have a complaint record a mile long,” said Heather Clary, director of communications for the BBB of Central and Eastern Kentucky.
According to the nanny Web site, Rodney J. Murphy’s place of business is in Atlanta. Because that is where the business is located, all complaints about the business must go through the Atlanta BBB. The company is listed on the BBB Web site as having an “unsatisfactory record.”
“According to information in our database, we have received complaints from at least 23 different states,” the Atlanta BBB Web site states. “... When considering complaint information, please take into account the company’s size and volume of transactions and understand that the nature of complaints and a firm’s responses to them are often more important than the number of complaints.”
In the past 36 months, the BBB lists 102 complaints about the nanny business. Of those, 37 were closed in the past year, the Web site states. Among the complaints are issues about advertising, contracts, billing and collection, sales practices, delivery issues, service issues, customer service issues, product issues, refund and exchange issues and other undefined concerns.
Rodney J. Murphy and Associates resolved 16 of the 102 complaints in the past 36 months, according to the BBB. However, six complaints went unresolved, no response ever was received to 24 complaints, two were administratively closed and 54 were unpursuable.
Under the notation for each “unpursuable” issue, a comment is listed that the company could not be located.
Finding Rodney J. Murphy
Under the contact information for the company, a Georgia phone number is listed along with an e-mail address that is different from the number listed with the advertisement. No one answers the phone, but the same man’s voice who directs callers to the www.wonderfulnanny.com Web site on the other line, also directs callers to leave a message.
No one returned calls made by the Richmond Register.
A reverse address search for 1060 Riverbend Club Drive in Atlanta also returned no results.
Under the guise of a staged e-mail seeking employment, the Register contacted the company, stating that while we were interested in the job opening, we didn’t have a credit card to get to the application process. A response came the next day from a Caroline Richardson, whose e-mail identifies her as “customer service,” with a thank-you for our interest.
“However, to properly apply for this position, please refer to the ‘Looking for Work’ link on our Web site,” the e-mail states. “There you will find a full description of the position, our process and directions to apply.
“Otherwise, we have several families you may be better suited for and you will remain in our database to be matched with the appropriate family for you,” it states.

The Richmond Register ad
A friendly gentleman called the Richmond Register classifieds department on March 28 around 11 a.m. to place the ad, said Vicki Clark, a classifieds sales representative.
He was cordial and wasn’t short about his conversation, Clark said. He gave the information he wanted printed and requested that the ad be run in the newspaper from March 29 through April 2. The man identified himself as Robert Murphy and gave his credit card number. For verification purposes, Clark asked for the address to which the credit card bill is sent. Murphy listed the address as 1209 Wave Runner Court in Nashville, Tenn. — approximately 230 miles and nearly four hours from his business address.
Clark thought it was odd that the card was from Tennessee, she said, but gave him the benefit of the doubt.
“I thought maybe he was moving here and needed a baby-sitter,” she said. “He sounded totally legitimate.”
The credit card company processed the $30.92 cost of the advertisement and it was approved. The advertisement ran in the Saturday and Sunday papers, but by Monday, people started calling to report it as a scam and the ad was pulled from the paper before Tuesday’s classified section was printed.
However, Register Advertising Director Sherrie Hawn said it could be several weeks before the newspaper would receive notice if the card is deemed fraudulent.
“We work on the honor system,” Hawn said. “We trust that it is accurate. When we punch it in, sometimes it will tell us right away, but this one didn’t.”
The MasterCard company could not say whether or not the card had been reported stolen or fraudulent, a representative said. A reverse address search on the address Murphy used with his credit card returned listed to a J. Murphy with a new phone number. Calls to the number simply rang without any answer from a person or answering machine.

Catching a scammer
As of Wednesday, Richmond Police Assistant Chief Jim Wilson said he was not aware of any complaints regarding this particular type of scam.
“We don’t have any victims right now, but the problem with that type of crime is that until they actually use the credit card info ... to buy something with that credit card number, that’s where the offense occurred,” he said. “(The credit card information) is what they’re really after. The $10 is kind of a little kicker so that they can get your money.”
If a Richmond resident were to discover their card had been used illegally, if it were used in another state, Wilson said that person would have to file a report with the police department wherever the crime occurred. Most people won’t do that for $10, he said.
“That’s the tricky thing about all this Internet stuff,” Wilson said. “You have to be real leery about it unless you know it is a secure means. If anybody asks for $10 for you to apply for a job, that should be your first tip-off.”
Anyone wishing to file a complaint about this particular scam should contact the Atlanta BBB at www.atlanta.bbb.org. All complaints must be submitted in writing. Anyone seeking information about other potential scams also can contact the local BBB by calling 1-800-866-6668 or visiting them on the Web at www.ky.bbb.org.
Before submitting your credit card information over the World Wide Web to a stranger, checking on the company with the BBB can save a lot of time and hassle, Clary said.
“You can have the slickest looking Web site in the world and that doesn’t necessarily mean it is legitimate,” she said.

Kelly Foreman writes for the Richmond (Ky.) Register.