CLEWISTON, Fla. - Hendry County has one of the highest unemployment rates in the stat, so when a new telecommunications company came to town, people applied and even went to work. But after a week without pay and no communication from the company, WINK News got a CALL FOR ACTION.

Angry and unemployed. People promised a job with La Promesa Corporation are finding out what they signed on for, isn't what it seems. The company does exist, but according to Hendry County sheriff's deputies, La Promesa is a modified pyramid scheme.

One of the members of the organization calls it a club, not a business.

"Regional managers were supposed to find three people they'd consider for district managers, then these three people were supposed to find seven coordinators and those seven were supposed to find four representatives," Kara Hernandez, La Promesa member, says. "Our position goes up as people are hired under us."

Now, those people pulled into the program want their personal information back and an explanation about how they got duped.

"They come out here with false advertisement that we're going to have jobs and we can do something with our lives, but it's a scam," Elgen Williams, falsely hired under La Promesa Corporation, says.

A woman representing the telecommunications company came to Clewiston's career services center and set up shop. It turns out, the woman making the hires didn't have the authority to do so.

"This lady came into work force development, took your applications and personal information, and now we need to hold the company responsible," Hendry County Commissioner Janet Taylor says.

And that's a problem according to Southwest Florida's Workforce Development, which has to approve businesses before they can contract workers from career services.

"Everyone on my staff needs to look at this and think 'boy is this too good to be true'," Barbara Short, Southwest Florida Workforce Development worker, says. "I think the breakdown was with this individual doing the interviewing and she may have taken some steps in hiring before she has received authorization to do so."

Short says policy could now change.

Up next county commissioners are considering legal action on behalf of people who have not been paid for work they've done for La Promesa in the past week, but because no one has paid La Promesa any money, and at this time no personal information has been stolen, no crime has been committed. What's lost is a promise.

The Hendry County Sheriff's Office is also investigating, creating a paper trail if the company misuses any personal information.