Lourdes Valtierra Dirden

Storyteller and Writer

Trust Your Gut

How do you fight predators, criminals, and con artists who have scammed you or tried to?

By telling your story and raising public awareness. Here’s my story.

For several months, I had been pursuing employment, maintaining a record of the companies to which I submitted applications. I initiated my job search on platforms such as Indeed, Career Builder, and Glassdoor. Unfortunately, my experience with these job boards involved receiving fraudulent job offers through emails and texts. There was nothing legitimate, so I simply withdrew from all three.

During this time, I had been enrolling in free business courses offered by the Small Business Development Centers (SBDC). Among these courses was about LinkedIn. As a result, I started my pursuit of job openings.

On 7/3, I received a text from Paul (847-380-4484) from Fielding’s Oil & Propane. At the time, I didn’t notice that Paul had spelled the company name as Fieldings oil & propane. It had no apostrophe on Fielding’s, and the words oil & propane were not capitalized. I should have followed my gut.

Paul’s text requested I email Micah Chaim at hiringdepts-fieldingsoil.com. I looked up the company’s website and noticed two emails: service@fieldingsoil.com and info@fieldingsoil.com. The “hiringdepts” seemed suspicious, but I kept going.

On 7/3, I emailed Micah, and when this person responded, I noticed the email had the company’s name spelled the same way Paul had it in his text, and there was no phone on the email.

The email had a job description attached and included four questions so they could “know me better.” The job description was on letterhead with a blue fire logo, just like the website, except there was no company name. There was also extra space between paragraphs. Did I trust my gut? No. I emailed my responses to the questions.

On 7/5, Micah emailed a job offer on letterhead with the same blue flame. It was signed by the managing director and president, Sumiko Yuka. The owners of the company, Bill and Dave Fielding, were not listed. In addition, the email stated my address was needed because a check would be sent overnight by FedEx so I could purchase a MacBook Pro, 16″ display with touch bar, Intel Core i7, 16GB memory, 8TB SSD Intel.

On this same date, I emailed this person to send me their phone number in case I had questions.

On 7/6, Micah emailed that the check had been sent overnight and included the FedEx tracking number. The phone was not mentioned or provided.

On 7/7, I received the check for $4,870. The check had the company’s name, Fielding’s Oil & Propane. I deposited the check. After emailing Micah the check was in my bank, the response was to email their IT consultant, Sarah Yatch at sarah@webcloudolutions.com so she can assist me to set up the computer. This is Sarah’s email.

Hi Lourdes,
I just had a discussion with Mr. Micah about this. It is actually the latest MacBook Pro, but the intel Max20 is a component that is supposed to be included during the manufacturing process and is only available if you have pre-ordered it. Also, you need an IT technician to configure it to meet the demands/configuration of your company. However, I am familiar with every requirement, as I have worked with this program for some time now. I can guarantee that we have the exact MacBook in stock right now, inclusive of the Touch Bar. The total cost of this will be $4,500, but if you can make a deposit of $2,000 today, I will pick up the MacBook and start installation, which will be ready for shipment tomorrow Saturday for delivery on Monday the 10th of July.  
Sincerely, Sarah

My gut screamed. I immediately visited Fielding’s Oil & Propane’s website and called their customer service line. Cindy, the person who answered, confirmed it was a scam. I provided her with my name and contact details.

I reached out to my bank and informed them about the fraudulent check. They removed it from my account.

Throughout the entire day, I was angry at myself because I knew deep down in my gut that something was wrong. All I kept thinking about was how many people are falling victim to scams, jeopardizing their finances and personal data during the job search process. 

If you’re interested in learning further about safeguarding yourself from scams, contact me. I have saved texts and email messages from these crooks. Let’s work together to regain our control. 

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