Firm Accused of Sending Out Phony Ad Bills

The Orange County district attorney’s office has curtailed operations at Employment Classifieds, a Santa Ana company it said sends out phony bills to businesses that buy help-wanted ads in other publications.

A preliminary injunction has been filed against the company, which operates out of a private mailbox in Santa Ana, to prevent it from mailing any more of its so-called look-alike invoices.

“We’ve seen this scam before,” said Robert C. Gannon Jr. a deputy district attorney. “They send out unsolicited bills for things which appear to be ordered by the company. It’s false and misleading. The whole document is sent out under the guise of a bill.”

The injunction, granted by Orange County Superior Court Judge Nancy Wieban Stock, was filed Thursday. A separate lawsuit was filed in Orange County Superior Court by the county district attorney alleging unlawful conduct, misrepresentation and unfair business practices, Gannon said.

Gannon said the alleged scheme worked this way: After a classified ad seeking employees was spotted in a publication, the company would send out statements designed to look like bills, with the words “Make Check Payable to Employment Classified” running along the top of the page in red and a section that said, “Detach and send top part with payment.”

The “statement” would include words directly from the ad. In small print would be a disclaimer acknowledging that the statement was not a bill and suggesting that the targeted business should advertise in the Employment Classified publication. Only one issue of that publication was printed, Gannon said.

Neither Erica Kortje, owner and manager of Employment Classifieds and Employment Classified USA, nor her Santa Monica attorney could be reached for comment.

The company could be liable for $2,500 per violation, according to Gannon, and there have been at least 25 complaints from across the country filed with his office.