railsfanatic -- Tom Grushka, Ruby on Rails Developer -- This picture, on a yellow-to-black fading starfield backdrop, has a large red ruby on the left, a glowing white plus sign, the red Ruby on Rails logo, a glowing white equals sign, and a photo of the sun on the right that looks like a giant ball of fire. The Ruby on Rails logo looks like an abstract railroad track super-imposed over a red ruby-looking background. Ruby on Rails is a framework for developing web applications using the agile method of programming. Underneath this, it reads -- Tom Grushka, Rails Fanatic

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Beware... "IronScope" is just another Craigslist Scammer

On July 12, 2010, I applied to a company called IronScope who was looking for a Rails developer, and provided everything they asked for in their Craigslist job posting. Even signed up for a trial account at IronScope.com to familiarize myself with their product before applying. I found several issues in the application, for example: "If hired, barring higher priorities, one of the first things I would address would be to modify the 'counties' partial in the 'new account' form view. I noticed that the county_ids checkboxes for the @account.primary_user do not retain their states on entry of an invalid credit card...."

Surely someone would have noticed that statement came from a genuine Rails developer who was trying to be proactive. But the major bug I found was a 500 error when trying to access their cancellation page after checking out the site. I thought, well, I'll just wait and see.

A week later I hadn't heard back from Mr. Albert Aguirre (aaguirre@ironscope.com), but my credit card had been charged by IronScope. No 500 error there, just a $50 fraud!!! So I e-mailed the company through their web site, thinking somehow they missed my communication. No response from that either, so I immediately filed a claim with my credit card company.

Three weeks later, the claim has not been resolved, and I tried calling IronScope yesterday morning. THEIR PHONE SYSTEM IS AN ENDLESS LOOP. All they have are voice mailboxes, and no one answers even the tech support line. Some "well-oiled machine" they are! (IronScope's job listing made this among other bogus claims.)

Here's what I found on the company per the Colorado Business Search:

ID #20091665771 -- IronScope -- Trade Name for Volar Investments, LLC -- formed 12/22/2009 -- Status: WITHDRAWN

ID # 20101417903 -- IronScope -- Trade Name for foreign LLC (FLLC) Claremont Information Systems, LLC -- formed 07/27/2010

Just another fly-by-night venture startup that is out to rip you off, whether you're a customer or a job seeker!

Did another search and found Erik Mitisek of Volar Investments on Zillow. Called the number listed, 303-504-0809. No answer, but his voice mail greeting has the exact same voice as the IronScope phone system. Coincidence? I think not.

I'd really like my $50 back, because I only signed up for this web site to learn about their company. That's what I got for being enthusiastic about a potential employer. Trust me, they're not hiring, IronScope IS JUST FISHING for your money and your resume!!!

If anyone knows how to get in touch with these people so I can get my $50 back, please let me know, because IronScope is incommunicado!!!