Atlanta-area staffing agency, Kap Staffing, has been busted by the Georgia Governor’s Office of Consumer Affairs for misleading job seekers.
Applicants for these high paying overseas jobs were reportedly paying $649 for the privilege of speaking to the company and being considered for a position.
There was no guarantee of a high paying overseas job, despite the fact that the staffing agency implied there was, according to Consumer Affairs.
In fact, the agency has some bills of their own to pay. Consumer Affairs spokesman Bill Cloud said Kap Staffing has not paid the $2,000 fine it agreed to pay for violating the state’s Fair Business Practices Act. A quick check on the BBB website reveals they have an “F” rating.
This is all began when Raishard Crawford, an Atlanta-area job seeker, scheduled an appointment with Kap Staffing after seeing the ad on Craigslist.
Read the ad below (in bold):
OVERSEAS EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES – Compensation $80-$200,000.
*** ALL TRADES NEEDED***
International job opportunities have become more available during this tumultuous economic climate. However, the extremely competitive job market makes it difficult for both job seekers and employers to find each other. Through our dedicated recruitment, assessment, and placement methods, we have found that our career-connecting service is able to efficiently match up qualified job applicants with companies that are seeking to fill positions outside of the U.S. Kap Staffing Solutions places qualified clients with American based companies for overseas employment.
***BENEFITS INCLUDE*** All housing food, transportation, and medical are COVERED! Plus the first $91,400 of your hard earned money is tax free, provided you are not on U.S. soil for more than 30 days within a 330 day contract period. CALL TODAY to schedule an interview with one of our Recruiters at 404-418-4994.
“an executive counciling service cannot guarantee actual job placement”
Sound good? Here’s another ad on Employment Guide.
However, he and his wife grew suspicious of the company when he noticed negative complaints online and realized that the $649 fee that must be paid whether the company helps a client get a job or not.
“There are too many people struggling for people to be taking their money,” said Crawford. So he contacted CBS Atlanta to warn other job seekers, as you can hear for yourself in the video.
The state’s Consumer Affairs office say they discourage people from paying upfront for work placement, as recruiters are usually paid by the hiring companies.
Kap Staffing CEO Josh McCormick refused an on-camera interview with CBS Atlanta reporter Jeff Chirico. And he didn’t respond to Staffing Talk’s attempts to contact him.
He would also not tell CBS Atlanta how many clients he has placed in jobs, saying “it’s none of their business.”
On their website, Kap Staffing calls itself “an executive counseling service that builds and markets resumes for qualified clients to American based companies for overseas employment.”
One job seeker isn’t buying it. And he’s glad he didn’t get sold on the idea of forking over $649 for a job that may never have materialized.
Crawford said it best when he asked Kap Staffing, “What are you guys doing? Are you selling hopes and dreams?”
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Staffingtalk fails to fully recognize the legal environment that international recruiters work in. Why should a recruiter in Atlanta who is trying to fill an international position be subject to different legal hurdles than a recruiter competing for the same job who works from Saigon or Singapore?
Notwithstanding, the staffing company mentioned in this article was misleading in its description of the tax-breaks available to offshore American workers. An expat (US citizenship presumed) needs to reside outside the United States for a consecutive 330 days within the same calendar year to achieve the benefits advertised by this craigslist ad. This means that if a worker leaves on New Year’s day, he will only receive his deduction if he returns to the US after Thanksgiving.
However, the subliminal allegation that Kap Staffing operated unethically is not clear. It might be unethical if the job pays $20 per hour with an hourly perdiem. However, if the candidates are anything like the employees of Blackwater, LA Times, or any foreign international airline require, a $650 cover charge is completely reasonable.
Most of these positions are difficult to recruit for properly. A college degree, military experience, or foreign language proficiency don’t necessarily yield the fit that they might otherwise for a stateside job. A perfect fit for such a position usually requires experience which is mutually exclusive from a higher education diploma. These people don’t come out of the woodwork easily, and aren’t easily segregated from their incompetent peers.
Someone who wants to work on a Cartagena-based oil-tanker is likely to understand these hurdles, and be cool with putting down the equivalent of a PlayStation 3 plus a bone-in ribeye to get his next gig.
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Bernie Madoff. Balloon mortgages. Nigerian Bank emails. When will people learn?
Kap’s job ads are so obviously a scam it’s astounding that people with $650 to their name would fall for it.
Kap Staffing CEO Josh McCormick should be in jail, and the greedy suckers who fall for his scam should be there with him.
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I didn’t go so far as calling this a scam, though one of our readers and commenters did. Obviously the Governor’s Office of Consumer Affairs in Georgia thought there were some improprieties taking place with regards to the $649 “cover charge,” and that is why Kap Staffing got fined for violating the state’s Fair Business Practices Act. So I’m not sure David why you would raise an issue with this or say our posting contained a “subliminal allegation” that Kap Staffing operated unethically. It’s not subliminal or part of a buried subtext or anything of the like. It’s also not Staffing Talk’s opinion. The facts are that the state said this staffing agency was misleading job seekers and that’s what we reported. The staffing agency also amended the language in their Craigslist ad, so if they were doing nothing wrong previously, why would they do that? I have lived and worked in 12 countries in Europe as well as Hawaii and Canada. I know full well, better than most people in fact, the challenges of placing people in overseas jobs. The point of this article was not to drill down and offer a tutorial on international recruiters and the legal or regulatory environment they should or do operate in. And I don’t think tax incentives figure much into it either. The point of the article is this staffing agency presumably has connections to some very high paying foreign jobs. They reportedly felt as if that connection was worth some money to folks, regardless of how well qualified they were for actually getting those jobs. Are you interested in being “considered” for positions that pay $80-200K? Fork over some money. And don’t expect to get anything in return. These people weren’t having their resumes polished, or their documents prepared, or being schooled in foreign language or culture classes. David, you underscore my point perfectly when you point out how difficult it is to recruit for these positions and what a particular background it takes. For those who are qualified for these positions, someone who might actually be placed on the crew of a foreign-flagged oil tanker, no, $650 is not much money. But for Joe Smith, who just walks in off the street after seeing an ad on Craigslist, who is no more qualified or suited for that Cartagena job than you or me, should they be charged $650 to submit an application that will immediately get thrown in the trash? The Consumer Affairs office in Georgia took exception to this business practice and that’s what we reported. Of course I would be somewhat reticent to hand over that kind of money to a staffing agency that offered “executive counciling,” but maybe that’s just me.
Employment scams are so commonplace, the only way to fight them is through education. You can call scammers out, but they can close down and open up with a different name the next day, so what’s the point? In fact the KAP job ad mentioned is virtually identical to many issued through Craigslist by fly-by-nights facing similar accusations.
The good news for job seekers is that there are reputable staffing companies out there and they are often the best ticket to employment and even career positions. A future Staffing Talk post on trust in the age of the internet would be very helpful.
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FTC cracks down on employment scams:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/political-economy/2011/03/ftc_cracks_down_on_employment.html
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The Fact is Kap Staffing Soultions has placed many of our previous members and we continue our efforts for all of our current members. Most people that are interested in working overseas as a contractor could not even name 5 current companies that hire u.s. contractors for overseas work. Let me name a few. KBR, (Kellogg Brown and Root) Honey Well, Bechtel, Flour International and Dyncorps. Kap Staffing Solutions offers a service that signs our members up with such companies and does all the necessary work that is involved in getting our members considered for overseas contract work through theses companies. Alot of people don’t really understand how companies that hire for overseas contract work. Most companies you have to directly sign up with. Once you have signed up you can submit to whatever is open and available that you qualify for. Now when you apply you are sending your resume for that position. The building of the resume that is submitted is pertinent. A company like KBR that gets 10,000 resumes a month doesn’t have a live human being flipping through the 10,000 resumes. They get sent through a database that scans a resume or C.V (curriculum vitae) for certain key words that matches each job description. Then a recruiter will look through the resumes that are picked by the database and contact a handful of people for a single job. Now since Kap Staffing signs our members up directly with the hiring companies their is allot of responsibility on the member to procure their own employment. Some companies contact via telephone some contact by e-mail. The ones that contact by e-mail will send something to the effect that you have been selected for consideration for blank job please contact said recruiter below if interested within 48 hours. So its our clients responsibility to answers there phones and conduct interviews, check their email on a daily basis, pass drug tests, pass physical exams, dental exams, sometime a mental health evaluation ect. Anyone that had the knowledge of getting themselves hired through anyone of these companies understands how much work it is to do on their own. We simply provide a valuable service for a fee and we work with our members until they accept employment. As to address our fine with the office of consumer affairs. We were fined $2000.00 and were required to add “an executive counciling service cannot guarantee actual job placement as apart of their service to our contracts.” Let me note that we never did guarantee that in the original contract. Kap Staffing is in complete compliance with the office of consumer affairs in Georgia and will continue all of our hard work for all current and future members.
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If you are so much in compliance with the consumers of affairs, then why are you on the news….and not to mention there are numerous of people saying the same thing about what you promise them. You promise something that you cant give, It is already hard that the economy is bad and jobs are being cut. Money is hard to come by but, I guess you dont understand because you had people to pay up front and nothing was given in return for 649.00 dollars for a job that you cant get them. Companies like you are the reason why the world is the way it is. But this time you will not get away with this scam.
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Interesting write-up, Josh. Thanks.
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I bet its interesting to you…..because this is what you do,scam people out of there money. More of you needs to be in prison, instead of the petty criminals. So judges needs to realize criminals like yourself
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We are currently recruiting contract career consultants in Atlanta, GA and would like to extend to you, or to someone you know, an invitation to consider joining our team as an REA Contract Consultant.
REA, Ricklin-Echikson Associates, http://www.r-e-a.com, is an industry leader in providing global career services to relocating spouses/partners of small, mid-sized and large Fortune 500 corporations across the United States and internationally. Established in 1981, REA specializes in delivering high quality services that include:
· Career Consulting / Professional Resume Writing
· Career Transition Coaching
· Career Relocation Assistance
Many of our well-qualified consultants are solopreneurs with career coaching or consulting private practices. They joined REA to supplement their client base and have enjoyed the following benefits due to their affiliation with REA:
· Expanded client base and additional income stream
· Flexibility of hours and ability to work from home
· Supervisory and management growth potential
· No marketing for new business required
· Supportive community providing ongoing learning and professional recognition
· Wealth of resources that REA offers to consultants
· Participation in research committees and project teams
· Broad diversity of clients and exposure to the specialty of spousal relocation career consulting
Due to our rapid growth, we are currently expanding our consultant base and are seeking part time consultants in Atlanta, GA with two or more years of experience in career coaching, career development, or career consulting to cover assigned geographic areas.
Please note: applicants currently employed full time will not be considered; applicants with a private practice are encouraged to apply.
JOB DESCRIPTION: PART-TIME CAREER CONSULTANT / INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR
Provide virtual career services to clients at all career levels who are spouses of relocating employees. Multi-faceted services include career advisement, coaching, and/or consulting primarily by telephone and via email, with occasional face-to-face interaction. Program services are tailored to meet the individual needs of the relocating client and include acclimation assistance, career assessment, skills evaluation, resume and cover letter development, job market research, job lead generation, networking techniques, interview preparation and salary negotiation.
The candidate we seek will have 2+ years in career development/coaching/counseling and meet the following criteria:
· Willing to work a flexible schedule and be available days, nights or weekends as necessary to deliver services across multiple time zones
· Have a professional office setup including computer, fax and email
· Adept at providing career consulting services via telephone
· Proficient using the Internet and familiar with career websites
· Willing to take several clients per month based on a flat fee billing structure contingent upon completion of REA program core components
· Proactive and comfortable working with diverse population of relocation clients in a start/stop mode, on the fast track, or interested in pursuing an entrepreneurial and/or home based opportunity
· Comfortable with being supervised.
If there is an interest, please email your resume and letter of interest directly to:
Danielle Dayries, REA Consultant & Sourcing Coordinator
reacareercoach@cox.net
Feel free to forward this opportunity to any qualified colleagues or contacts that might be interested or be in a position to post the opportunity on their website.
We look forward to discussing our needs and your ability to contribute as a member of our team.
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RETURN MY MONEY OF $649 ARE YOU AT KAPSTAFFING WILL SEE MYSLEF IN MY LAWYERS REAL SOON IN COURT FACE A LAW SUIT I CAME TO YOU ALL IN GOODFAITH SO RETURN THE SUM OF $649 IN GOODFAITH IN WE WILL BE DONE IF NOT KAPSTAFFING WILL BE IN EVERY PAPER IN ALSO TV ALL OVER THE WORLD IN OVERSEAS AS WELL IN GOODFAITH
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Business with the right staffing strategy and the right outsourcing partner can reap substantial rewards, as many have already witnessed success. In current challenging economic environment IT Staff Augmentation is even more strategic than ever before and can help you stay competitive and survive the challenging market conditions.
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