Job hunters around the Jersey City area beware! "Roundabout Marketing" and "Filo Associates" pyramid scheme companies are running wild.

Submitted by Vivid_Ground1930 t3_z3621a in newjersey

A month ago I applied for a costumer service representative job on Indeed, with this company called Roundabout Marketing. Long story short it was a multi level marketing company that lied about the job position, promising candidates the world. In reality it's just a glorified door to door sales job, where you'll try to get people to donate to different charities. The moment I found out they only pay you 30 DOLLARS a day for showing up to the office I left forever. The only way you'd get any significant amount of money is if you get any donations, and if you don't get any it's just a waste of time and money. The company is called Filo Associates, but they go by roundabout marketing. The manager is called Edward Pei, who is known for running these type of schemes. Usually they change names, so be aware of that. In the office I worked on, there was another pyramid scheme company named JAM Executives. They're both located in Jersey City journal square, and usually target young adults. If you want to know more about multi level marketing companies, just look up devilcorp. It's a borderline cult that hides under legal hoops. (This thread is older, but it also warns of this scam from the same jersey city based company) https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/comments/vl7i2f/roundabout_marketing_scam/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

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Deslah t1_ixl2w10 wrote

Filo Associates let their web domain expire and haven’t updated their FB for 5 years. That’s a solid red flag right there. 🚩

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Vivid_Ground1930 OP t1_ixl3x6c wrote

Not only that but the fact that their website, roundabout marketing, looks like it was made in 10 minutes is also really suspicious.

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buttfacenosehead t1_ixliix0 wrote

Years ago a buddy of mine worked for fjd marketing. He was a kid in high school at the time and managed to sell enough trial newspaper subscriptions to win a couple trips to Disney World. I was older so I investigated a position with the company as a driver.

Turns out they'd recruit a bunch of kids (usually from low-income areas) & a driver takes them to some development to run door to door trying to sell newspaper trial subscriptions.

Immediately everything felt terrible about this. You're supposed to entice the kids by saying you'll take them to McDonald's if everybody sells five subscriptions and whoever sells the highest gets fries. I wouldn't even let them out of the car.

I gave them all 10 bucks took them to McDonald's bought them everything they wanted and then told their parents to never ever let them do this again. In particular was a young small girl that could have disappeared in a second & no one would have known where the hell to start looking for her. These companies are terrible.

Years later I went on another interview & the"team" was walking around trying to sell various items they had in a bag to people on the sidewalk.

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pwrdup829 t1_ixm0hs0 wrote

I interviewed for a place like that years ago, advertised the job as inside sales, I wore a suit and tie and then found out they were gonna have me go do field sales door to door. But here’s the catch I wasn’t gonna make commission on anything sold as it was an interview. Told them literally that I wasn’t a fucking volunteer. Kept me in the field for nine fucking hours. Couldn’t leave because my car was at the offices

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remdog76 t1_ixmnhm1 wrote

Interviewed for this place a few months ago. Couldn’t quite put a finger on it then but I knew something was up. The “mandatory team bonding activities” on Saturday. The six day a week workweek. The almost laughable salary. In fact, Edward Pei was the guy who interviewed me. Couldn’t have been more condescending if he tried. Showed us a dog he asked if we had an issue with bringing into the office (now I know that’s a straight up manipulation tactic to let people’s guards down. Plus turns out from the other thread, the dog isn’t even his).

It all seemed super strange but I desperately needed a job. I ended up rejecting their offer and was immediately hung up on, no “we wish you luck” or anything like that (not that I’m the type of person who wants that kind of thing, I’m glad they showed their true colors even for a brief moment). Nothing registered in my mind that “this is clearly an MLM bullshit door to door exploitation job” but I’m glad my suspicions were confirmed.

Roundabout Marketing (Filo Associates) and companies that take advantage of desperate people need to be exposed. Thank you OP! This deserves way more attention.

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Vivid_Ground1930 OP t1_ixmtlhz wrote

Glad you didn't join, the Edward Pei guy also showed me the dog 🤣. He has been scamming people for years now, and apparently he has generational wealth, so he can afford to do these types of schemes without losing money.

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miflordelicata t1_ixmqbon wrote

I had an “interview” at one of these in the early 90’s in the Union area. I walked in to a roomful of people. I asked where the restroom was and left

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LeftHandedAnt t1_ixlyo0d wrote

Crazy. Thanks for bringing awareness!

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mcgeggy t1_ixlzq14 wrote

I remember in the late 80’s I was working at a hotel, and a super friendly young woman approached me with a pitch about one of these companies, that had a “seminar” starting in a few hours in one of the conference halls. So I said what the heck, and showed up for it. It immediately struck me as completely bizarre and nonsensical- all of the people who were part of the company were hyper ra-ra-ra, overly enthusiastic, cheering… Had some young kid sitting in the center of attention, them going on about how much money and objects he’d earned soooo quickly. The kid sitting there with this dumb smile, saying not a single word, knowing what complete BS everything they were saying was. I walked out after 30 minutes…

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neva_that t1_ixm807f wrote

It's crazy I remember being in between jobs looking around 5 years ago and just how many of the offers you could find in JC were either straight up scams or looking for you to scam people. cough atlantic energy cough

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Jimmytowne t1_ixmde2u wrote

I worked for a MLM door to door selling Chinese products. Innovage and DSMax were the parent company. My office was called Manhattan trading led by “Magic” Mike Madrigal. I was pretty good, had 7 people below me and I was making good money. I knew it was a scam for most of the distributors. I even told them there’s a slim chance of succeeding.

But the energy, the experience of face to face sales and rejection helped my career moving forward. It was a great experience but it also ruined many lives.

Looking back at it, I think it provided a lot of personal growth ; I turned a traumatic work environment into a positive life lesson

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DrMagentaBlue t1_ixmjgw4 wrote

There is a similar company in Journal Square. They will invite applicants to attend an all-day "interview" where they misleadingly say you will spend the day meeting clients as an educational opportunity and to learn the workings of the company.

In reality you will be put on the street to help push sketchy marketing signups as they try to extract unpaid labor the instant the "interview" begins. I'm sure these scams have only gotten more common over the years. Always be careful to research the company you're looking for a job at, even if you're only going there for just an interview. Not every interview is legitimate or even necessarily safe.

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Animaul54 t1_ixnjf8p wrote

I’ve heard about these. I almost got stuck in these over 15 years ago when I was job hunting after college. Almost fell for it. Thank goodness I didn’t go forward with it.

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Ashamed-Bend-9756 t1_ixsqav8 wrote

Soo they have a new LLC it's called CareerPlace right now, beware! Their current address is 35 Journal Square, Jersey City, I've called their management just to let them know what's going up.

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Vivid_Ground1930 OP t1_ixss50c wrote

Thanks for letting me know! They also have another one called Shared Vision Executives Inc. I think what they do is that they make up these fake companies and just use the same office.

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