So 9 of us got scammed...

[Euthorus]

I have been a somewhat regular visitor and at times contributor to these wonderous boards and having a great deal of respect for my fellow IT enthusiast community I am now in need of an advice.

About 3 weeks ago myself and 9 other people from all over the US got suckered into paying for an MSCE training course with a package including 2 years of certifications and job placement on top. The company that proferred this deal was
MS Learning Partners also know as :

1. National Employment Compliance Corp
2. National Help on Exams
3. Partners in Technology
4. CTEC Academy
5. National Employment of America
6. American Medical Technology Group
7. MS Learning Partners
8. Tech Institute of Georgia
9. Microlearning.com
10. USA TAP
11. NTTAP
12. MCSEapprenticeships.com
13. lanapprenticeships.com
14. National Employment

To make the long story short they took $14,000 from each of us and fell off the face of the earth.

After painstakingly peacing bits and pieces of information about the company owners we were able to locate their personal information such as names, addresses, personal phones and even SS#'s.

So far any attempt at going after these guys has been futile. They are STILL a licensed Microsoft Training Provider and Microsoft doesnt seem to care that they are a fraud.

What would you recommend we do ? I apologize ahead of time, this is not a plea for legal advice, I simply want to know what can be done within the IT industry to prevent others from getting screwed by these guys.

[dajogejr]

Start by contacting the better business bureau, then your state's attorney general, possibly the attorney general of whatever state they practice business in.

Be a starting point...14K is a lot of money, not like were talking a couple hundred bucks or so...

Sorry to hear about your luck...hope it works out for you...

[Euthorus]

Already tried that, contacted IC3 and FBI as well and even tried local news stations all in all no one seems to give a flying poop.


Should I just post their personal info on some crappy public boards and let people ravage their identities ?

[dajogejr]

Have you/your company hired a lawyer and seeked legal advice?

[Euthorus]

Thats the worst part - you would think that with $120,000 an attorney would not be difficult to find. In reality its quite the opposite - the local attorneys wont take the case since they wont be able to get personal jurisdiction of the scammers and their place of business is no longer around to be pursued by out of state lawyers

[Sterling_Aug]

The State Attorny General of each state you all live in plus the each of the states they practiced business in should be the best starting point. I pursued a scammer from ebay when I lost only $20 and I got my money back when the local police (to the scammer) was contacted.

[bushmaster]

My way would be to have the miscreant wake up naked tied to a chair while I take out his toes one at a time with a 30oz ball-peen hammer. Then I start to get nasty and slowly work my way up.

[millwork]

Should I just post their personal info on some crappy public boards and let people ravage their identities ?

No! You could end up as the defendant instead of the plaintiff. It is very possible the SSANs you found are stolen as well.

Go the State Attorney General route.

John B.

[mireland]

My way would be to have the miscreant wake up naked tied to a chair while I take out his toes one at a time with a 30oz ball-peen hammer. Then I start to get nasty and slowly work my way up.

LMAO!

[Euthorus]

Well I was very tempted to fly over to GA where one of the scammers lives and wait for him with rock salt loaded 12-guage. I already contacte the Attourney General they took the information and thats the last I heard of it (its been 2 weeks)

[bushmaster]

He's prolly related to the attorney general. Last name Bush by any chance ?

[Euthorus]

nope the scammer's name is Mike Henry

[Euthorus]

Sorry to dig this up again - I but I am still trying to fight a losing fight it seems. I did get several replies from people who also got screwed by this guy.

So if you are one of the vistims please reply - to my knowledge Mr. Henry just opened another comapny in Las Vegas, NV so new victims are bound to pop up.

[millwork]

Are you saying the Georgia State Attorney General's office has not responded or given you an update since April? Recommend you contact them again. Everything I find traces back to Marietta Georgia.

I did a little checking and found the main company (CTEC Academy) had a pretty good record at the BBB from 1993 until June 2004 - Total or 4 complaints and they were resolved. I have a "cached" copy of that 2004 report and can send it to you via PM if desired for your records.

After that, the company's record went south. The current BBB record indicates:

"The Bureau processed a total of 39 complaints about this company in the last 36 months, our standard reporting period. Of the total 39 complaints in the last 36 months, 8 of those were closed in the last 12 months." Additionally, it seems the preponderance of these complaints occurred in the last year - they just stopped responding to the BBB inquiries - mail returned and phones disconnected.

During the two year timeframe between reports, it looks like they also started operations under several business names to include one not on your list - National Technologies. That one seems to be the current label they are using.

Remember, there is still a possibility the SSANs and other identity you've collected about the culprits could be stolen and not their actual IDs - Although this now seems unlikely.

Good Luck on your quest.

John B.

[Sterling_Aug]

I would also file a police report in each of the local cities registered to anyone/everyone associated with the companies (I use the term company loosely since these are scum of the Earth scammers here).

If you send money using the US Post Office or if you recieved any literature from them, you could also file a Federal Mail Fraud claim since the info crossed state lines.