Amazon Sues Chicago Business For Allegedly Taking Part In Work-From-Home Job Scam
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Amazon is suing a Chicago business for allegedly taking part in a scheme involving an online ad promising money to work for Amazon from home.
Dale Brown says he was taken off guard Wednesday night when CBS 2's Dana Kozlov showed him his name in the lawsuit.
The e-commerce giant is suing Brown; his partner, Jeffrey Giles; their LaGrange Company, First Impression Interactive; and a man named Roy Oron. The lawsuit alleges all of them baited people to buy unneeded Internet services by fraudulently advertising $27 an hour work-from-home Amazon jobs and using the e-commerce giant's logos and other images to do it.
"We run advertising for a guy that does business with this Roy guy," Brown said. "It's because we run their advertising."
But the lawsuit claims otherwise, stating First Impression Interactive "conducted a widespread and unlawful telemarketing operation" to lure alleged job scam victims through unsolicited phone calls and voicemails.
The lawsuit states the calls directed victims to websites, which then linked up to domains controlled by defendant Roy Oron, who is believed to be in Israel. They included so-called landing pages that not only advertised Amazon jobs, but also contained its logo and even pictures of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
"Nothing with us. That's all that Roy guy in Israel," Brown said. "We just ran advertising for them."
Brown concedes online Amazon job scams are rampant, a claim backed by the Better Business Bureau, but Brown insists his company's part was all above board.
Brown says he hopes to seek legal counsel, but has not been served any papers showing he's part of the lawsuit filed Wednesday.
Amazon said it is not only working with law enforcement to crack down on these employment scams, but it is also taking legal action against those involved, indicating this lawsuit is part of that effort.
