Oregon Public Broadcasting

As many as 500 people from the Yakama Indian Nation in Eastern Washington may have been duped into giving their personal information out.

They were promised high-paying jobs, free meals and lodging in exchange for cleaning up the oil spill in the Gulf Coast. Correspondent Anna King explains.

Ryan Craig is a 28-year-old radio DJ for the Yakama Nation. He's pretty mad today for his friends and family.

Many of the people he knows were taken in by a likely scam by a man who promised jobs cleaning up the oil spill on the Gulf Coast for $40 an hour.

Ryan Craig: "He came and he picked up guys and women that needed the job; that needed the money, that didn't have anything going on."

Craig says that Yakama tribal members who signed up for the gig were ready to board a bus early Thursday morning, but the bus didn't show up.

Ryan Craig: "They put stuff in storage, they had going away dinners and you got elders saying oh we wish you the best, do your best and come back. If this don't happen how is our whole community going to feel?"

All those people gave up their name, birthdate, address, social security number and tribal identification.

The scam has been linked to a man calling himself Christino Rosado.

Rosado has also been named in another scam in Oregon City earlier this spring. There, Rosado claimed he had jobs for people in a new juice plant that was coming to town.