ElcaSolutionsInc.com Scam

Elca Solutions was once a legitimate web development company located in Gainesville/Largo Florida. However, although sites like yelp, yellow pages, manta and others still list the business which makes it appear to still be open for business, it actually closed several years ago. Because these listing sites make the business look as though they are still open for business makes it a perfect target for scammers because potential victims will believe that they are.

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The actual “legitimate” website was elcasolutions.com and was hosted on GoDaddy. The scammers set up the fake business website at elcasolutionsinc.com on 1/5/2015 and it is hosted on Vooservers in the UK on IP address 91.227.223.96. The whois info for the domain lists the contact info using the original owners legitimate business credentials.

BEWARE! This is a scam website set up as yet another money mule operation to “employ” work at home customer service managers to handle “customer” accounts as the go between for the customer and the “programmer” who is overseas usually Eastern European countries like the Czech Republic. The program manager or “supervisor” for this particular scam goes by the name Jennifer Stephanidis and has a thick foreign accent.

They offer a very tempting salary with benefits and ask you to sign and complete an “employment agreement” and then ask for your bank account information for direct deposit “to pay your salary” and to receive “customer payments for services ordered” as well as a completed w-4 with your social security number “for tax purposes”. They may even do a “phone interview” with their prospective “employees in an attempt to make it appear like a legitimate job.

Once “hired”, they require the “employee” to register an account on their “web panel” where they are told they will be provided training and must be logged into daily to receive their job tasks. The web panel is located at “http://elcasolutionsinc.com/panel”.

Here’s What Happens Next!

The scammer will inform you that they have deposited a certain amount in your bank account and will ask you to verify it’s availability and then will give the first task. The task is to go to your bank, withdraw the deposit and wire the cash to their “programmer” overseas via Western Union or Moneygram so they can get started on the customers project ASAP and then immediately provide the transaction ID number via the web panel upon completion of the task and you will receive a bonus, usually 5% of the transaction after the money is successfully picked up on the receiving end.

Which of course, the employee will not get and in fact the original deposit they placed in your bank account and you withdrew usually is reversed and pulled back out of your account a day or 2 later either by the scammer or the account the scammer stole the money from making the “employee” liable for that transaction which could be thousands of dollars!

Usually by the time the employee realizes that they have unfortunately been duped into an illegal money laundering and identity theft operation, the scammer is never to be heard from again, leaving the “employee” dealing with the repercussions of their actions while the scammer has moved on already seeking and finding new victims and setting up their next scam website. As of this post date the website is still online but eventually the website at elcasolutionsinc.com will be shut down. Some of the previous fake employment/job scam websites these criminals have created and operated most recently were:

• us549alphagraphics.com
• isysincorporated.com
• glowebdesignllc.com
• waterwalkllc.com
• graphicillusionscorp.com

This is just a partial list, there has definitely been others.

What To Do If You Are A Victim Of This Scam

If you have found yourself to be a victim of this scam, you need to contact your bank immediately and close your account, hopefully BEFORE they try to reverse the transaction. Next file a police report with your local authorities and then file a complaint with the FBI’s internet crime center at http://www.ic3.gov/

Next you need to contact the 3 credit bureaus- TransUnion, Equifax and Experian,  and place a fraud alert on your report. These scammers now has your Social Security number so they can steal your identity and may try and obtain credit in your name. This will alert you for at least 90 days about any suspicious activity.