For a summer job, sounds pretty awesome, huh? Especially being 21 (or just out of high school).

I received a notice about a job on my university e-mail and it was for this job at Vector Marketing. I went to the interview and I even left 20 minutes (I had class). The lady called me at 9:25pm at night saying I was accepted for training.

To any and everyone thinking about a lucrative summer job, dont fall for these. This place wants you to put down upfront $540 dollars for a starter kit.

Anybody else have horrible summer job stories or scams?

Now that was smart of the scammers they actually gave you an interview before they tried to scam you.

I do not have any horror stories but than again I have only worked two jobs my entire life.

Get a job that pays hourly, even if its minimum wage. These places that say outlandish things like you can make 4,000 dollars this summer. I was reading up on this company and they dont even pay you for training, nor the gas miles you spend to visit customers in home.

I feel like I would have to become vince from shamwow to sell knives.

You had me going! I was about to say, "Heck yeah, where do I sign up?!" :c We get flyers like that all around campus. They're easy to spot as scams since they all look the same.

"Sit on your ass at home, mail envelopes, and receive over $500 a week!" Uh-huh, sure.

lol... well there ARE legitimate envelope stuffer, mystery shopper, medical transcriptionist jobs out there... but they are usually tough to find. best to find them via someone already in the biz.

for easy, part-time work, i have to suggest vendor merchandising. basically stocking shelves with various crap for places like walmart, walgreens, target, petco, etc. i do this in my part time and its good monopoly money for simple work. you usually have to visit the particular company site for job application.

cody (and other makeup companies), american greetings, hallmark, energizer, crossmark, etc, and more... all have merchandising opportunities. the list is endless.

I also came to say 15$ an hour sounds fab, but wtf @ the $540 'starter kit'... Maybe paying for your uniform but other than that I've never heard of that kind of thing. :P

Awe bummer. Up until the start kit I was stoked.

That is so messed up, in these economic times, man. D: Bloody scams!

That's a pretty well known one. There's a lot more crap under the layers to it than just the starter kit too. Good that you caught it before you got ripped off though. :)

I'm in the job search too, need something a little less backbreaking with more reliable pay than I have now (I work as a maid/aide. Half of the first time customers decide that they don't need to pay me because I'm 17).

One summer during high school a local business owner asked me to watch her son full time while she was working. I accepted knowing that it would be pretty good money. She ended up being a total control freak and a monster. Her kid was a piece of work and their neighbors were crazy. I will never get into another situation like that where I don't know who I'm dealing with. I didn't even get paid for my last week since I quit on a Thursday.

I will also never again work as a house cleaner. Another high school summer job horror story: parents of a friend of mine owned a bed and breakfast. I thought they were the nicest people and I was thrilled to be by myself and work. She told me it would be light house work, cleaning, and making food trays. It was NOT. Those things were involved but it was so much more. THEIR laundry, THEIR bathroom, THEIR rooms. Ugh. I was supposed to be cleaning the b&b. I'm also kind of a germaphobe and so there were other issues. Toilets, bathroom floors, beds, kitchens, ew. I also had to chase a frantic bird out of the cabin one day when it flew in while I was taking the garbage out. In the end I was so traumatized by the woman who hired me and her craziness I had to have my dad help me tell her and he even helped me finish the day working. It was pretty sweet.

My favorite job was working in a fudge shop. I think I may have gained a pound or two but I was working with one of my best friends and it was a summer of fun and singing along to the radio when there weren't any customers!

I get the equivalent of $25/hour. But I only work 45 minutes a week, student teaching tap dancing to 7 nine year olds. My other job I had was at a toy store. I got paid $9/hour to play with toys all day with my three best friends. And the best part? I didn't even have to do an interview/application/resume. My friend called me at 1pm on a busy Saturday three weeks before Christmas and asked if I could come right away and help, they needed more people. Thus began my two-winter Christmas job as a "pixie" at a toystore, playing with toys for money.

Oh man laugh I suppose I own you all then. I do telemarketing, I know I am evil, but like I make killer sales I make like 600$ to 750$ a pay check. That's on a BAD day smirk I do feel kinda guilty though cause I dunno it's like I am just TAKING their money and cheating them. But like we all got to make it some how right? I do hate when they get grumpy, cursing at me and stuff. Makes me irritated some times. I do love my job though cause we don't have a dress code so I can come in dressed comfy and not be fussing with my clothes. Though if I can get 15$ an hour doing a job that doesn't make me feel like a cheat then HECK YEAH I want it!

I make $14.17 at Nokia hahaa and I'm 18, so I guess thats not tooooooooo bad.

We had a scam like this around our college a couple of years ago. Something about selling knives? People were writing the job opportunity on the chalkboards.. I think even some professors were advertising it. Kind of makes you wonder... :x Someone I know actually went for it. Woooops?

Oh yum. It's never /ever/ that high for 3rd world countries chuckles

Paying 540 bucks to earn 15 dollar an hour during the summer isnt that bad. Not if you work like, 8 hours a day, every day.

That is if you even sell anything. I applied there as well and once they told me about the kit, I walked out. You may never make the money back. Same thing with this other company as well.

My friend recruited me to start my own business, however the catch was that you need to out fit your house with 500 bucks of their technology then use the pyramid scam to sell it. Once I told her I wasnt interested, she still tried to force it on me, telling me how great it was, yet she never sold anything. And she wouldnt even tell me how much i'd potentially make as it was all commission of course.

Oh yeah for sure, thats what I thought. Then I saw this from one of those petition sites

In order to get a regular (40 hour a week) full-time paycheck you must somehow manage to get to 40 or so homes a week (8 appointments a day, this may take at least 16 hours of work per day) which is almost impossible. Altogether it would take at least 2 hours (not to mention time spent training, checking in to the office, attending meetings and conferences, and more that you don't get paid for). Vector does not pay for knives, clothes, gas, phone calls that are involved in a typical sale. There are numerous occasions where the company doesn't even pay the employees if they do not meet certain requirements.