Original post on July 15, 2013
Hi,
My name is Tom Schultz. I am a resident here in the Lakelands subdivision. I want to warn people about a recent scam that happened to me last week, July 7th. A boy by the name of Marques Copeland came to the door claiming to be a recent graduate of Plainfield North high school. He claimed he had gotten a permit to solicit in the subdivision. I made the mistake of not asking to see it. He was a very polite and charming black boy dressed in a nice shirt and tie with short pants. He supposedly was enrolling in U. of Chicago and was working toward gathering sponsorship to pay for his tuition.
He claimed to be part of an organization called Entrepreneuerssales.com. This web site actually exists. Their mission supposedly is to help underprivileged kids. He claimed he was a youth leader helping kids on drugs, missing parents, etc… being a good role model for all of these troubled kids.. After talking with me for 20 minutes, he casually mentioned he was valedictorian of his class. When I asked him his grade point average, he replied 3.5. When I mentioned to him that valedictorians usually have a near 4.0 average, he said there were actually 5 valedictorians in his class and he was number 3.
Sponsoring him meant buying magazine subscriptions. Unfortunately, I fell victim to his charm that cost me a couple hundred bucks. I was suspicious of his answer to his low grade point average for someone who supposedly was a valedictorian, so the next day I called Plainfield North high school. Nobody answered, but I left a voice message. Today I got a call from someone named Tom Hernandez, Director of Community Relations, who investigated and found there was no such person named Marques Copeland that recently graduated from Plainfield North. He said this most-likely was all a big scam.
I googled this company, Entrepreneuer Sales, and found there where LOTS of complaints about this company. I just got done filling a police report with the Plainfield police department. They said to pass a message to all of my neighbors… that if anyone claims to have a sales permit for the subdivision to call the Plainfield police department at 815 436-2341 and they can immediately verify if the company is legitimate.
Tom Schultz
13212 Wood Duck Drive
630.854.9366