Beware of fake recruiters,scamming students out of cash money

I was almost the victim of a scam this past week.

I am a student at my local Tech school in the 5th week of CDL traing.

Recruiters have stopped by our class to push their companies,and several other companies have flyers and applications there at our school.

One very professional looking flyer was from TransAm trucking, with the name and number of a recruiter to call. It had the name of Craig D and his phone number.

I called this number and spoke to someone claiming to be Craig, and was asked a series of standard questions such as did I have my AP, when was graduation etc...
The next day (Christmas Eve) Craig called me back and said I could go ahead and get a head start on my training with TransAm by driving with a trainer on the Friday,Sat and Sundays that I was not in school, and asked if I could be ready to start the Friday after Christmas.
Even though this sounded very odd, I was all for it and agreed.

But then Craig, or what ever his real name is, stated that it was going to cost TransAm several undred dollars to come to my hometwn to pick me up. And to gaurantee that I would show up at the pickup point,and not waste their trip to my hometown, I needed to send $300 via Western Union to him, and I would get this money back when their truck picked me up.

This sounded very fishy,so I told Craig that I would have to hold off on that until I could call the TransAm website phone number to verify this. And if it checked out, I would go with them next weekend.
Craig told me that they had several other students waiting, and if I did not send money that day, I would not get to start training. However, I still refused to send any money.

The Friday after Christmas, I called the TransAm number from their website, and was told that this guy was indeed a scam artist using the name of TransAm to scam students out of money.The recruiter I spoke to at the real TransAm was very coordial and apologetic, and stated that they had recieved several calls about this guy,and that he had scammed atleast 5 people out of money. And it was only after these students waited at their pickup points that they realized they had been scammed.

So for any other students out their like myself, be very careful who you give any personal info to over the phone, as they may be a scam artist just trying to get your money.