Complaint Review: American General Contractors

An individual named Jason Russell contacted me by phone and said that he was into real estate and that the owners of a newly constructed apartment complex in a nearby city were looking for subcontractors to take on a contract to clean the newly built apartments. Being a new company, I thought that it was by sheer luck that I got this call. They offered 82,000 dollars for the job that would take 10 weeks to complete. They said that they would pay half upfront and the remainder at the completion of the job. I, of course, accepted the terms and he told me that he would send over the contract for me to view and if I was in agreement with the terms, that I could then send him the required documents to move forward.

About an hour passed, and just like he said the documents showed up in my email. The presentation of the forms was very detailed and official looking. They asked for a form W-9, a list of employees, a list of services offered and that in order to accept the contract, I must have insurance coverage of 5 million Aggregate with 1 million workers comp. Of course, being a small cleaning company I didn't have, neither would I ever need such a policy. I sent him all the requested documents minus the insurance. I explained in the email that I didn't have anything near that level of coverage. He then ensured me that he already had a network of insurance companies that would give me the needed coverage at a discounted rate because I was working with AGC. He told me the cost was usually between 10-12,000 dollars annually for this type of policy but that I could get it at a discount of 3250 dollars for a years coverage. I thought that it was a small price to pay for the opportunity to have such a good contract. He then said that the contractors (Keith Johnson and George Ramirez) would contact me the next day and set up an appointment in the city where the apparent apartments were located. I was head over heels excited about being so lucky.

I then thought that it was almost too good to be true, so I began to research the company. I first went to the website that they provided, it looked good, but I noticed that they didn't provide any contact details other than an email address. This seemed strange so I dug deeper and saw the company name and the post from an individual that said that the company was a scam and that they preyed upon those in the fields that dealt with building upkeep and maintenance. After reading about this individuals experience I noticed that more people had the exact same interaction with this company that I had. Luckily I found out early before I gave them any money. Needless to say, I was very disappointed to find out that this opportunity was nothing more than just an elaborate scheme to cheat people out of their money. Thankfully I found out in time. Others weren't as lucky and I hope that these people are caught and put out of the business of scamming hard working individuals trying to work hard and earn a decent living. Hopefully, this helps the next would be victim to avoid being scammed.