Scam alert

Yesterday was my first experience with a scammer. I had a guy call me for an estimate. After doing the estimate he told me he was satisfied with the pricing and wanted to proceed. After setting up an appointment time he wanted to process payment via credit card. That’s when he “needed a favor.” He wanted me to process 4k on “his” card then take the money for the work and give the rest to his “friend” who would be stopping by the job to check on progress. His story included heart problems and a hospital stay and had all the convienent details. I’m glad that I’m smart enough to spot BS from a moron but it got me thinking. What if I run into someone that’s actually good at conning people. Anyways just though it was interesting and I would love to hear your thoughts and stories on the subject.

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Looking at it now I probably should have posted this in way off topic. Is there a way to move it?

You are fine. I like these. Sometimes I keep them going for days if I’m bored. I did tell one to pound sand and it was actually a regular customer. He understood, finally lol

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These people always text and never call. If you call the number they text from, it will say that it isn’t a working #. Stay clear of these scum of the earth people. Glad you caught it.

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Stolen card for sure… I guess you could have taken his payment of 4k and called the CC company and had the Police there waiting for his friend. It sounds very risky to the scammer as they never want to have an associate show up and get busted then roll on the perpetrator. He may of asked you to WU the balance after you made the charge to avoid what I described above.

Did this guy have an accent and speak fluent
English?

Drop a security freeze on the 3 Credit Monitoring agencies as these scammers are relentless.

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He spoke clearly but used idioms improperly.

That could very well have been me.

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Yeah! You need to work on your idioms…Bada Bing

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I don’t want to add insult to injury or beat around the bush but I’d give a penny for your thoughts about a hot potato, in a NY minute.

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I’ve had many people text my business number and say something like, “Do you offer pressure washing and do you accept credit cards.” Naturally all of them I’ve turned away. The 4k to a friend, wow! That’s pretty daring for a thief to try that. Doesn’t surprise me though.

That’s like stealing web designs from another website

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How many legit clients do you figure you have turned away by that method ?@HydroCleanAlabama

OK you got me. I didn’t explain thoroughly enough. I still check if it’s a real person or not. I ask a couple of questions and you can tell pretty quickly. I don’t just turn people away. However every single person that has started their text message with that line has ended up being a scammer. Thanks for the comment, it gave me some extra entertainment on my way home. Ha ha

It took me way longer than I should’ve spent trying to find these screenshots in a 3000 pic camera roll, but I did it anyway. After I messed with Percy and Boswell I haven’t gotten another one in months.

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I turn people away… and they keep trying to get me to wash and finish wood or aluminum siding or heavy equipment… This just came through ironically. I passed on her deck and wooden furniture and now she’s trying to negotiate. Lol

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Sometimes you just have to load up your prius and wash some decks.

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Most likely zero. How many legit customers are going to open with that question?

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you know what I don’t know where you are located but I’m in Texas. I got the same text almost verbatim minus the hospital stuff. I just remember how he said something about “I need to make a little balance to the seller of the property” and I thought where is this guy from. I wish I still had that text conversation in my phone! My response was very similar to yours. “I’m not following you here” This guy gets around!

I just got one last night

It’s not one guy. It’s a template scammers use and they just change the “customer” name.