PMG Scam - Revisited.

It's time once again for the PMG Scammers to make their way to college campuses everywhere. What is PMG you ask? Well, that is a really good question. Mainly because they change their name almost as quickly as they cash the checks of the people that they are scamming. (Actually now they are taking credit cards instead of checks to speed things up)PMG stands for "Professional Marketing Group", "Professional Mentoring Group", "PMG Mentors", "Private Mentoring Group", "Vermotion", "Sercure Gate" and the ever popular "College Pro Painters", "PMG Painters", "Campus Pro Painters."

SO, who and what are they? Well, they are a group that sneaks onto campuses all over America and hang up signs offering "Internships" to anyone who is interested, or the possibility to make $40,000 over the summer. Oddly enough they usually do not contact the campus Career Centers, or Placement Offices. Instead they rely on paper signs that are posted on communal bulletin boards with tear off phone numbers. Normally in areas where Freshmen and Sophomores frequent, but not in areas that will attract the attention of the campus at large.

Hey big money, internship, summer job, how could a struggling student not be tempted. This is exactly what they are hoping for. Here is how it works. The unsuspecting student calls the number on the tear sheet. The energetic person on other end takes down basic name and phone number information, asks a few meaningless questions, congratulates them, tells them that they qualify for the internship, and they set up the first "interview."

Normally the "interviews" are held either just off of campus in coffee shops, just on campus in a communal area, or if possible, in an out of the way area in a campus union or other non-regulated meeting area in a actual campus building. BUT, never in an area that is authorized, or sponsored by the campus. Which is really odd, considering no other internship interviews take place like this.

So the "candidate" shows up for their first "interview." Oddly enough, there is usually a group of 3 to 5 other people also in the same interview. This is where if the warning bells haven't gone off before, they should go off now. No company in the world interviews people in a group. Seriously, can you imagine Microsoft bringing five people into the room at the same time for an interview? Doesn't happen.

But, it's not really an interview either, it's really a sales pitch, that they try very hard to make it sound like it's not. They throw great ideas such as: "How many college students do you think manage their own businesses before they graduate?" or "How important do you think REAL work experience is on a resume?" or "Would you rather say that you ran your own marketing company, or that you worked at Gap as a stock person?" "How would you like to be make enough money to pall for all four years of college in thee months?"

Great ideas, and they hand you nice marketing materials that they had printed up professionally, and by this I mean they made photo copies at Staples. How do I know they made the copies at Staples? Well, because they carried them in the Staples box that they got from the store. During this point of the process a few people figure out what is going on, and they excuse themselves and leave. Oddly enough, they don't allow the "interviewee" to keep any of the interview materials. The people that buy into the sales pitch are asked to fill out a form and told that they will be sent off to their district office and if they are lucky they will be called in for a second interview.

The reality of the situation is that everyone who fills out a form is invited for a second interview. When the first interview is over, the "candidates" are still not allowed to keep the marketing materials.

Now, on the other side of the coffee shops, courtyards, or lounges there is another PMG rep holding "second interviews." This person is normally wearing a ill-fitting suit and they have their marketing materials in a binder (way more professional). Now this is time they explain to them how they are going to be mentored, or how they will get to be their own bosses. There are three standard packages they use in their scams: 1) House Painting, 2) Magazine Sales, or 3) Web Portal Sales/Template management. They will not actually be doing these things, they will be managing people who will be doing these things. They emphasize this over and over. They will be trained to manage their own teams. Explaining that they start with these types of companies because it will teach them valuable real world experience that will look great on their resume, and they cannot be taught in the classroom.

Great. Again at this point many people get up and leave. PMG doesn't worry, if someone gets up and leaves, twenty minutes later the next person will be there.

Anyway, for anyone who stays to the end, they get to fill out yet another form, and they are told that they may be forwarded on for a third interview. Seriously. They try and make it sound like they are seriously trying to narrow down the field of candidates. That way when they get a phone call in a couple of days saying that they have been selected, they actually feel like they are lucky.

"Interview" three is the important one. This is where the scam gets tricky. This is the interview where it is sink or swim for the scammer. They explain how the internship works: First they put the intern through intensive training, they will give (sell) them all of the marketing materials that they will need to get started, and they will set them up with their own mentor/manager that they will work with during their internship. If the "intern" hasn't gotten up and left, then they close the deal. As with most internships, you are expected to pay for your training, training materials, and class time, and PMG only charges you $1000 up front, but you will earn that back in no time.

WAIT A MINUTE? WTF?

Interns pay to be trained? What? Whodafuck? Pay to become an intern? How? What? Who? Charge Card?

I wish I was joking. I have seriously watched this happen, they hand them this twenty page contract, tell them to read it, fill out the last page, and make sure that they enter their charge card information on the last page too. I have also seen more than one person actually read the contract, sign it, and put their credit card number on the page.

What is the PGM scam other than the $1000 that they just ripped them off for. That is just the beginning. Using the house painting team management for example here is the scam: Lets say PMG gets you to promise to make $40,000 for them managing a group of painters in a specific area they have "placed" you, of this amount you get to keep 10% and everything else over the $40,000 (i.e. you can make $4,000 and maybe much more).

You hire the painters (you have seen the small plastic signs by the side of the road: "Earn Big Money Painting Houses During the Summer."), you get to go door to door in an area they tell you to and try to find people who are willing to let non-union/non-contractor college student painters paint their houses, you get to estimate how long you think it will take to paint the house using your crack team of non-skilled painters, and you have to barter with the poor homeowner who is looking to get their house painted for next to nothing.

You will need to cover the cost of the painters wages, the paint, the brushes, cleaning materials, etc. And if by chance you are able to squeak out $40,000 or more during the summer in profits during your management tenure you are lucky, and you made a decent summer income. BUT, that is the rare exception.

But what if you come short of the $40,000? What if you only make $30,000? I guess you only make $3,000 right? WRONG!! You are not making $3,000 in fact, this is the scam, you didn't promise them 90% of your earnings.. you promised them 90% of $40,000. So, if you earn $30,000, you still owe them that money and an additional $6,000.

What did you say? How is that? Well that is the scam.

They get you to sign a contract stating you will deliver a certain earning level. In the contract you promise to deliver that amount. It is a legally binding contract that you sign. And yes it is legal, that is one thing they do make sure of, you will be over 18, and you will be held responsible for your legally binding contract with them.

Is this illegal? No. Should it be? Yes.

In case you haven't guessed, these jerks are running the scam at the University of Illinois right now. The up side is that most of the students walk away. But lets face it, they only need to get ten or more to say yes to make the scam worth their time.

Since I posted this article the first time, nothing much has changed with PMG. They are still running the same scams on campuses; and they are still going after the same groups as they always have.

Since posting that article various "managers" from the group have contacted me at one time or another to try and explain their point of view. One even admitted that was the way it used to be, but it is not like that anymore, and they have gotten rid of all the people who gave them a bad reputation.

Here's the rub. I sat down a couple of days ago and watched them work their magic again with a new set of lemmings suckers interns; and they are right things have changed a bit. Now they let the new interns take their "application" home and fill it out before their final interview. They do not get to read the contract until after they show up for that third interview, but they can fill out the important information before they show up to save time. They are holding the final interviews two at a time instead of one at a time, and they are calling the main office with all of the details right after the future intern leaves on their iPhones so they can get them into the system faster.

And since there are now two people doing the final interviews (the "Area Manager" and the "District Manger") they can tag team on the hard to close interviews.

So it went from a shady process to a more polished con. The service has not gotten better, they have just gotten better at running the scam.