ALEXANDER HUNT IS A BIG SCAM, READ HERE TO KNOW MORE:
Hey all.
I went for a job interview at Alexander Hunt which was initially advertised on Gumtree.com for a position of Mortgage Sales Advisor working for Lloyds Tsb Bank.
On the Gumtree website they said ''no experience needed, only an outgoing friendly personality, eagerness...'' . There was no mention of it being advertised through an ''agency''. The number I called to make the initial appointment for the interview was 02075615295. A girl answered the phone and said my interview would be at 10.30 am on the Thursday (19th of January 2012), she sounded professional and well spoken as they all do.
The location on the interview was 72 Clifton Street, London, EC2A 4HB. I had difficulty finding the place as there is no sign whatsoever of any official company or office in the building. As I got in there was no signs or logos of the company and there was only three people operating computers on bare desks. The office looked very poorly decorated, empty and they were the only ''company'' in what was a huge building complex (the walls to the entrance are made of glass and you can see there is no other company operating on site).
One of the girls at the desk took me to a small room and told me to wait for the interviewer. The interviewer introduced himself as ''Frank'' ( about 5''8', blond, blue eyes, British with an Essex accent, wearing a pink stripped shirt and tie). He asked some very basic questions and after 10 min. of talk, he said he had a position for me but that I needed a small qualification (CF1-CF6 or CeMap), the job description he gave me was totally general and didn't even mention the employer or Lloyds bank, which was the initial job offer on gumtree. The salary potential on the description was too good to be true (20k to 24K basic plus going up to 42K). Frank was extremely good at creating an environment where you would agree with him and eventually have the mind set of wanting to be ''successful'' and ''grasping an opportunity that shouldn't be wasted'' (as said by Frank himself). Being a very good salesman not until right at the end, he tried to convince me to buy the course in order to get the position. He initially said the course was £995 but said he could get £300 off of it when I said I couldn't afford 995, or that I could give him a ''deposit'' and pay the rest at the end of the month. Being an ex-salesman I had noticed all of his techniques of persuasion and emotional trickery and the on-the-spot pressure to buy the course in order to get the job (he mentioned 3 million people being unemployed and this was a gold opportunity). Knowing it was a dodgy and untrue job offer, I said I would research the course and would get back to him. Once I said that he tried not to look disappointed and told me that I was supposed to call him back by 3pm with my decision (whether I wanted to buy the course or not). I never called him back but he called me 5 times after 3 pm. sounding very desperate and even left me a voice mail saying that I should call him back. The numbers used to call me were 07841417861 and 02074561014. I received a call on a withheld number which hung up on me and half an hour later I received yet another text from ''Frank''. I sent him a message and said he should no longer contact me or I would report him to the police for harassment. BEWARE , THIS IS A BIG SCAM, DO NOT ALLOW YOURSELF TO GET EMOTIONALLY CAUGHT IN THIS TRAP - HOWEVER DESPERATE FOR A JOB YOU ARE. DO NOT PAY ANY MONEY WHATSOEVER.
At the end of the interview I pointed up that I was skeptical and that I wanted more info about the company that should hire me... of course nothing. I was already sure that was all a bull****, but being a foreigner I had some doubt since in any country staff work a little different. Thanks to this forum and you guys I had the confirmation I needed. I wrote this also to advise other foreigners looking for job in London that might be easy victims of this fraud.
