Job seekers in the Dallas, Texas, area should be wary of a bait-and-switch style hiring scheme that seems to be preying on young local marketing hopefuls. TikToker Madden Baggerly (@madden_baggerly) says she was promised $500 to $700 weekly for her new “highly competitive” social media marketing job. What she got was being stuck in a mall kiosk for $30 a day.
@madden_baggerly Lets NOT normalize scam/ fake marketing internships! Live laugh love!!!!!! #dallas #foryou ♬ original sound – Madden Baggerly
Madden’s video, which has been online since yesterday, has already been viewed over 217,000 times. In it, she describes how getting what seemed like a dream job quickly went south.
Madden found the job on LinkedIn, where the position was described as “super competitive.” She went through a series of “rigorous interviews” before landing the job. However, on the first day, she quickly realized she had been hired for a very different position.
She described the job as “sales fundraising for a non-profit” by a third-party contractor. She added that her next day was spent in a meeting about “overcoming ‘noes,’ because no one likes those people at the kiosks that are like, ‘Hey, lemme talk to you about something; please donate.'”
As for the $30 dollar-a-day pay rate, Madden said, “That’s not even a livable wage!”
An hour and a half into the second day, Madden determined “something fishy is going on” and walked off the job.
In the comments section, viewers shared similar experiences.
“Almost every marketing job opening I’ve seen is a scam,” one TikToker commented.
Another wrote, “My first job I got hired for a ‘marketing analyst’ role, showed up first day and it was a door to doors sales gig. I didn’t return the next day.”
Madden quickly posted a follow-up video revealing who she believes is responsible for her so-called internship. The video shows a LinkedIn page for Bart Yates, owner of Charity Advertising and Marketing Partners.
Madden alleges that Charity Advertising and Marketing Partners handles “sales donor acquisition as a third party for Doctors Without Borders.” She accuses Yates of running a “very MLM-like system where he recruits all these people” and makes extravagant promises that people can earn hundreds of thousands of dollars as long as they “recruit more people to work under you.”
“Bart right here is the only one making any money in this scenario,” Madden states. “Is that really charitable of you?”
The Daily Dot contacted Madden via TikTok comment and Charity Advertising and Marketing Partners via its Facebook page for more information.
