- Report: #1214133
Complaint Review: Person Requesting House Painting - Internet
Reported By:
AvatarPainting, Inc. -
Sumner, Washington, USA
Submitted:
Updated:
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Author Not Confirmed
Why?
Person Requesting House Painting
Internet, USA
Phone:
not provided
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Person Requesting House Painting Random (likely fake) names requesting house painting or other contractor work do you take credit cards, i need surgery,i will like to make a deposit of $1000 for the inspection and estimation of the property,bank transfer or cash deposit to the initial owner of the property selling the house unknown, always provides address close to you Internet
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To Whom It May Concern:
I run a painting company, and have for the past 7 years. We have always been licensed, bonded, and insured, and have a good reputation with our customers. Over the past few months, perhaps 8 times, I have received emails asking if I do interior and exterior painting and then when I respond, the person asks, "Do you take credit cards" and then provides a story about some medical problem or surgery or some supposed condition where they "need" me to take a credit card payment for 3-4 grand and then give someone else money. It usually sounds something like this:
"Thanks for the respond and i want you to do the job on interior painting in the house i just bought a 3 Bedroom in the city so i need the interior painting., i will like you to do me a favor due to my sickness in the hospital for my surgery due to my lung cancer and i will be very glad if you can handle everything for me, but i will love to come back to reside at the house i just bought,i will it like it to be fix before i arrive,I will be paying for the inspection of the property for proper handling and estimation Please do provide me with the total cost for of the interior painting, i will like to make a deposit of $1000 for the inspection and estimation of the property
here's the address 15708 Meade Mccumber Rd E, Sumner, WA 98390 i will be making payment as soon as possible because i have less time but the most important thing here now is that the keys you will use in entering the house and do some checking are still with the initial owner and i have text-ed him and he got back to me that they will send the keys to the contractors that will handle the painting which will be you and you will need to do me a little favor about the initial owner so you can gain entrance to the house ?"
You will notice here that the English in this particular case is not very good. At the end of the email (this is the most recent I have received, there is not a request for a cash back portion, but there usually is a request as in the other emails. I believe that this person or persons is the same that have sent me all of the previous emails, and that they are trying to get me to invest time into going and looking at these projects so they can take advantage of my credit card processing by making this payment, getting immediate cash in return, then either cancelling the transaction or I would find out the card was stolen.
Here is another example, and I believe it to be from the same individual or group of individuals (the names of the "customer" in every email is different from instance to instance, and I believe totally made up). The addresses are always addresses near the shop, which is easy enough with Google Earth to fake from anywhere in the world. Here is another example from a different week, and a seperate email:
"Thanks for your response. i was told that i still need to balance up with $4000.00 before my keys can be asked to drop with you for estimate and this is happening because there were some changes in the house that cost the agent more fee okay, so you will be filling up the space of handling everything for me and take the keys for me so that you can proceed with the painting estimate and i will be paying for the total expenses so it can be easy for you okay. so what you will do for me now is that i will give you my card to charge for sum of $5000, plus the extra 3% credit card company charges and you will deduct the sum of $1000 as deposit of your service and send the remaining $4000.00 via bank transfer or cash deposit to the initial owner of the property selling the house to me.Once the initial owner has the $4000.00 and after they have got the balance then they can have the keys sent to your location for you to start your work and you also deduct $100 for your self for helping me with request....letting me know that you understand."
Now I have not been stupid enough to accept any of the over half dozen appeals for these transactions, as they can only end badly. However, I had not heard about anyone else getting these types of appeals, and I am convinced that it is a scam. I am interested to know if other contractors have had negative experiences with these supposed credit card customers only to be scammed out of thousands of dollars by fraud.
If you have experienced this, please comment on this post. I would like to know your story.
Respectfully,
Jason
CEO, Avatar Painting, Inc.
