2 arrested in connection with alleged job scam targeting students

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Philadelphia police have arrested two women in connection with an alleged job scam that targeted high school students.

Major Crimes got involved in this case and interviewed ten high school students who paid money to a company called HSNS for jobs, but say they never received the paychecks and scholarships they were promised in return.

Detectives tell us the company was a complete fraud, created for the sole purpose of taking money for teenaged kids.

Three high school teens first reached out to Action News back in August of 2014 after they were hired to work for a company called the Heritor's Student Network and Savings Company, or HSNS.

Alex Collier is one of those students. She tells us, "I think I recruited about 100 [students], or more than that in three weeks."

Their job, they were told, was to recruit other students, and they paid Sanovia Johnson $60 each upfront for a t-shirt and a job earning cash now and scholarship money once they graduated high school.

Another one of those students, Martha Jackson, explains, "Basically, when you recruit people you get $18 per person but they split it in half and put half in your savings account and you also get paid like a regular job. So by the time you cash out you will have a lot of money when you graduate to pay for college."

But they say to this day, those paychecks never came.

Philadelphia Police Captain Roland Lee of Major Crimes says, "I think it's despicable, to be quite honest."

The three girls and seven other students were interviewed as part of Major Crimes investigation into HSNS, and the two main operators, Sanovia Johnson and Bridget McCoy.

Captain Lee says, "They set up a bogus company to defraud people. That was their main goal and focus."

Captain Lee tell us their investigation found HSNS was never a legitimate company... but was a scheme set up to prey on vulnerable high school students.

"So it's almost like it was establishing to be a mini Ponzi scheme, you know, for people to come in, pay money, but jobs never given to them," Captain Lee said.

Johnson and McCoy were arrested and charged with fraud and theft by deception. The question now is what happened to the money these students paid to Johnson and her partner in crime?

Captain Lee says, "They just took that money and used it for their own personal use."

Action News tried to reach out to Johnson today, but she is still being processed and released by police.

The students tell us they still have not received the money the company promised to pay them after our first report. Captain Lee tells Action News, for them to get any of the money they say they are owed, the students would likely have to file a case in civil court.