KATU sheds light on new laptop sales scam

SALEM, Ore. – Amanda Bennett found her financial world crumbling last August.

Laid off and looking for a way to make money, the established eBay retailer searched online.

"I saw an advertisement on Google that said, 'Become a certified laptop distribution agent.' "

The company, Mobile-Workforce 101, provides this sales pitch: You pay a couple hundred dollars for training in order to get certified as a salesman. Then you get a shipment of $99 laptops with minor surface or cosmetic flaws and turn around and sell them for $400 to $500 a piece. You get the first shipment upfront.

Bennett signed up by sending a money order for $199.00 to a California address. Three months have past and she’s received absolutely nothing in return.

When she questioned the company in e-mails, she got a response telling her Mobile-Workforce was going out of business.

"Don't contact us again. If you contact us again, we will turn you over, file claims against you,” Bennett said they told her.

But when a KATU producer called the company, a man who said his name was Mike Barrington told her she could get started for $279 and would make bundles of money. He said nothing about going out of business.

When KATU investigative reporter Thom Jensen called the same number, Barrington yelled expletives at him and ended the call.

KATU found six complaints against Mobile-Workforce101 on "Ripoff Report" and other consumer complaint Web sites, all stating the same thing. People paid hundreds of dollars and got nothing but false promises.

The company’s Web site is registered to an address in Sherman Oaks, Calif., but the owner of that property told KATU he knows nothing about Mobile-Workforce. A spokesperson for the California attorney general’s office told KATU they will look into complaints against the company.