[email protected] (Design Plus based out of Russia)
Complaint 9720 Details

Design Plus is an interior design company based out of Moscow, Russia. They found me on a job board and asked me to fulfill their role needed of a Financial Manager. The responsibilities were explained to me as such:

Since they are located in Russia, they are looking for someone that has a physical address in the United States so they can ask customers to forward all payments necessary for the construction work they provide as a company. The customers that I was receiving checks from were all from within the United States. So, it seemed like it was a legitimate explanation of their business needs.

I was instructed to receive the checks from their American customers and cash them immediately in my personal checking account. Once the check was deposited, I would withdraw 95% of the money and take it to Western Union to wire it to the sales manager in Russia. The remaining 5% would be my pay for the service renderred in the transaction.

I have been unemployed for approximately 8 months and felt this supplementary income would help in many ways as I searched for my next full time position, so I felt fine with taking the job.

However, in receiving a total of 4 checks for Design Plus, I was faced with a total of 3 of the checks coming back as NAF (insufficient funds). They bounced as a result and left my bank account with a huge negative balance of over $6,000.00 which I have had to work to bring back to a positive status on my own since Design Plus is no longer returning my e-mail messages or pleas for help in this situation.

Eric Davidson, the coordinator of this service with Design Plus, had initially stated that their company found that some of the other patrons for their business were later found to be "fraudsters" and Design Plus would be sending me a check for the amount of $10,000.00 to cover my negative balance in addition to any trouble I might have experienced throughout this whole ordeal. However, over three weeks later, I have not received assistance from Design Plus, nor have I even received any sort of confirmation via e-mail from them since the reporting of the insufficient funded checks from their customers.

My intentions are such:

1.) I want to make sure that this company and their e-mail address is noted as a fraud so that no other person in the United States falls prey to their activities.

2.) In a perfect world, I would like to receive restitution from Design Plus for the negative funds I have dealt with in my bank account as a result of their business.

Please see what you can do and notify me of any findings you might come across. My personal e-mail address is [email protected].

I pray that you will put out a large notice against Design Plus so that there are many "red flags" that pop out once another person looks into the opportunity of being a Financial Manager for them.

Regards,

Michael Torres