Scam artists targeting low-income families in East Valley
Families in the eastern Coachella Valley are being targeted by scam artists claiming to be working with a school district, costing some low-income people thousands of dollars.
Jeni Villavicencio has five kids enrolled in school with the Coachella Valley Unified School District. A few months back someone called her home claiming to be working with the district. They wanted to sell her encyclopedia DVDs to help her kids in school.
According to CVUSD it’s a scam and it’s costing low income, predominately Spanish speaking, families thousands of dollars. Villavicencio has already lost $3,500. Twelve families have already come forward saying they were victims of the scam.
“My husband is the only source of income and I am a stay at home mom. Money is tight and It has been financially difficult,” said Villavicencio via a translator.
The alleged scam artists claim they are with the district and work for a company called Education Multimedia. Some of the disks they sold didn’t even work.
According to the district, these alleged scam artists set the parents up with payment plans from a company called Exit Financial to pay for the DVDs. When the parents find out the DVDs are worthless they try to stop payments.
“They wanted to call the company and cancel, and they wouldn’t allow them and they can’t cancel. Then what happens is it goes into a small claims court and these families are getting judgments against them for twice the amount,” said Dr. Darryl Adams the superintendent with CVUSD.
According to Adams, at least one family was ordered to pay $200 a week until the debt was paid off.
“They took advantage of them and so we have to make sure it stops,” Adams said.
The school district has been trying to help victims of this alleged scam by even coming with them to court with them. A couple of times these cases have been dismissed because Exit Financial never showed up.
CVUSD is still trying to figure out how the alleged scam artists were able to get contact information of the victims.
KESQ made some calls to Exit Financial and the operator said there was no one in the office who could answer questions. The people claiming to be part of the district could not be tracked down.
“We are not going to stand for this. As a district we are going to go after them, No. 1, for misrepresenting that they work for us and for their criminal behavior,” said Adams.
CVUSD will be in contact with the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office to try to stop this alleged scam targeting poor families who might be afraid to go to the authorities. The school district is already working with the Mexican consulate which some of these families turn to.
“It gives me some comfort knowing that we are not the only victims. You fall into these scams because you want what’s best for your children and their future,” said Villavicencio.
CVUSD would like to remind parents the district would never call a parent looking to sell anything, especially not DVDs since the district has given iPads to all their students.
The district is worried there could be many more victims. If you are or know someone you know could have bought into this alleged scam contact the school district first thing on Monday. CVUSD’s office is located at 87-225 Church St. in Thermal and you can call (760) 399-5137.
