JACKSON, Miss. (Legal Newsline) -- Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood warned consumers Wednesday about a con artist currently perpetrating a job application scam in the state.
A man identifying himself as Brandon Williams with Wipe Out Windows filed job orders with WIN Job Centers in Forest, Greenwood and Vicksburg.
Williams claimed to need general laborers whom he would pay $12.50 per hour.
The Forest agency referred three applicants to Williams, while the Greenwood agency referred 29 applicants and the Vicksburg agency referred 10. The WIN center applicants referred an additional 16 people to Williams.
Williams got in touch with the applicants after 5 p.m. Friday, telling them they had the job and needed to pay a fee of $61.95 by 6 p.m. Sunday to cover the expense of a transportation industry card and a shirt. Williams told the applicants to come to the WIN job center on Monday morning ready to work.
The applicants were duped into paying fees for a job that did not actually exist.
"The Mississippi Department of Employment Security immediately reported this issue to us and is working to provide our office with information that will hopefully lead us to this con," Hood said in a statement. "These types of scammers almost always choose to prey on the vulnerable, in this case folks needing a job."
In total, 40 people paid Williams $2,478 in fees. Some of the applicants also gave their Social Security numbers to Williams.