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"ACCESS: Networking in the Public Interest"

Is it a scam?

[last updated 1/24/03; see bottom.]

I attempted to go to a non-profit job fair on Thursday, November 21st, 2002, at the Regency Building in San Francisco. It didn't exist.

I was a bit annoyed that I had wasted my time and energy preparing to go to this job fair. Initially, I was also a bit suspicious that it might have been a scam, largely because:

• there were several advertised nationwide;
• they accepted check and credit card payments for a $10 or $15 registration fee;
• there was no indication on the web site that the event had been cancelled;
• there was no indication at the site that there was ever an event planned there.

It would really anger me if someone posing as a non-profit were taking advantage of people who need jobs and want to work for non-profits. To me, that would be an extremely abhorrent crime. It's quite possible, since the site is easily accessible from Google and various career or college sites (e.g. at Skidmore College), that potentially thousands of people have signed up for these career fairs.

My first inquiries, late Thursday night, 11/22, showed that the site has been around since at least the year 2000, and has continually advertised different career fairs.

In San Francisco alone, they advertised them for June 20th and November 21st, 2002. In Washington, DC they were advertised as occurring April 1st, 2002 (hmm) and October 9th, 2002. In New York City, they're advertised as having occurred January 11, 2002 and scheduled to occur March 25, 2003.

Recent inquiries (of Friday, November 22nd, 2002) have made me more convinced that it's a scam, though I have no tangible evidence.

Today I called the hotel that was supposed to have hosted two career fairs this year in Washington, DC, the Loews L'Enfant Plaza Hotel. The person I talked to couldn't find a record of such an event on October 9th, 2002. [It would be easy to ask them to produce a record of their events on that day, of course.]

There's obviously more evidence available from the other locations that are listed as having hosted the career fairs, which can easily be found from the various incarnations of the site. I don't really have the time to investigate these in detail, but maybe a reporter, a law enforcement agency, or the Better Business Bureau does.

Damningly, the Better Business Bureau reports that ACCESS has an "unsatisfactory record with the Bureau due to one unanswered complaint."

I called the SFPD to report a case of possible fraud, but since I didn't register for the conference, they wouldn't take a police report since there was no actual crime committed against me. I plan to write to some reporters. [11/22/02 4:18 pm]

Update, 1/24/03: Whoever maintains the ACCESS jobs home page attempted to comment out the "Career Fairs" navigation image and link (but only succeeded in commenting out the anchor; therefore, the image still appears, at least in IE 5.1 on MacOS 8.6, without linking anywhere). The URL it formerly linked to, accessjobs.org/careerfair.html, is now empty of content and links back to their home page.

Hmmmm.

If someone from ACCESS is reading this site, feel free to email me with an explanation. Maybe it's not a scam; maybe someone made a mistake, doesn't want to admit it, and isn't very good at covering their tracks.

Copyright 2004 Jason L. Gohlke.

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