The Scam

At 6:30 I woke up, much to soon, and made it to the lobby where the hot breakfast consisted of a steam table with biscuits, sausage, eggs, and gravy, pretty good for the econolodge. The bus from Melton arrived. A short blue bus. It looked nice but sounded rough. It reminded me of bussing to middle school. There were only 5 of us in the class. That would be nice.
The bus driver was also the orientation leader or teacher or whatever. A skinny young guy from all over the place who let it be known he had just gotten over a nasty divorce in Dallas. We went through the first part of the orientation. i don't remember what it involved, all of these things are pretty much the same since it is required by the FMCSR (The Federal Motor Carriers Safety Regulations) that all new trucking company hires go through an orientation that covers all the things that it should.
At one point the orientation teacher who I'll call Paul asked if any of us had received any odd phone calls at the hotel last night. Another guy and I said that indeed we had. Paul said that people had received these calls last week and they were trying to figure out what they were about.
After the first break, about 2 hours in one of the other students said he had gotten a call from his parents saying they had been contacted by someone from Melton about wiring some money. I checked my cell phone which had been turned off. There were 4 messages from my parents.
I thought that was odd.
I listened to the last one first.
"Well" my mom said "I've done it. I've wired you $650 dollars to Western Union in Myrtle Beach."
My heart was racing. I called her back. My dad picked up the phone.
"Dad, you didn't send any money to anyone did you" I said, knowing that they had but hoping otherwise.
"yes, mom did."
"oh shit. it's a scam, it's a scam."

Apparently what had happened was this. The fellow who had called my room the previous night was on a fishing expedition. In the preceding weeks or months he had fished the info from recruiting about what hotels in the Tulsa area Melton used for orientation. Then the night before he called the hotel and asked the front desk attendant, identified himself as Mike from Melton and asked to speak to the last recruit who had checked in. He spoke to the other guy in class the first time he called and got me the last time since I was the last to check in.
From me he got emergency contact info and got my cell phone off so that I would not be reachable the next morning.
The next morning, just after he knew orientation had started, he called my parents claiming to be from Melton and telling them that since I had some solid experience they had decided to put me out on the road with a trainer. I was en route to Myrtle Beach but needed to pay for some insurance that they would reimburse if I stayed with them for a few months. I would need to have the money in Myrtle Beach so it would need to be wired there via Western Union. For transactions under $1000 dollars WU does not require ID but only a password that is set by the sender. This guy told my mom that the password should be "Melton." Nevertheless she specified upon sending the money that I would need to show ID. Now either Western Union did not follow through on this request or "Mike" had a fake with my name on it. By the time we realized it was a scam the money had been picked up.
It sounds absurd in retrospect just as the timing and questions of the call I received in the motel the previous night does but at the time this guy preyed on the fact that my mom cares about me and wanted to make sure I got off on the right foot with this company.
I have to give credit to Melton for working hard to right this situation which is still in limbo. My mom has given statements to Western Union and the police in Maryland and South Carolina. Melton has tried to get the attorney general of South Carolina to investigate this on the basis of insurance fraud. Nothing has yet been ironed out. With Melton, my parents, and even the police Western Union has been completely uncooperative.