Post by FreedomClean on Jun 17, 2006 7:55:13 GMT -5
I am proud to say that I have learned a couple of valuable lessons recently. Being a new guy in the business I am sometimes a little too eager to please potential customers and it has very nearly gotten me scammed. 
Recently, I was contacted via my company email by someone claiming to be a gentleman who was relocating to Edina, a fairly well to do suburb of Minneapolis. This gentleman gave me a complete breakdown of his home and told me exactly what he wanted done. We settled on a price of $550.00 (The house had 2 Living Rooms) and he said he would send me a check for the cleaning. He hadn't provided me with an address for the residence, but said that he was having some furniture delivered there and once that was done, the furniture person would provide me with the keys to the house and the address. Now since I am a small company and operate out of my home, I was a little hesitant to give him my address to send the check to, but the greedy side of me prevailed and I gave him the address.
I didn't hear from the guy for a couple of weeks and figured he had backed out, but then I got another email from him saying, "the check is in the mail". Lo and Behold, yesterday I get an envelope addressed to the company but with no return address. Inside is a cashiers check made out to the company in the amount of $4950.00.
. It was drawn on a bank in Florida. I emailed the gentleman asking what he wanted to do with the overage. But something kept nagging at me that this was all wrong. Finally, I looked up the bank on the internet and called the branch that the check was issued from. I told the person I spoke with that I had received this cashiers check and the amount was way over the amount that my "customer" and I had agreed on. She said, "Is the remitter Denny Thomas?" 
How could she have known that? I told her it was and she informed me that it was a fake. The bank sees a couple of these a week and that it is a scam. They ask you to cash the check and send the rest via Western Union to some address. Sure enough he replied rather quickly that this is what I should do with the overage.
I was shocked, amazed, stunned angry and embarassed...but mostly at my self. How could I have not seen this coming? In my greed to get more business I overrode all my gut instincts. I have since forwarded all my emails and such to the authorities and am waiting to hear back from them on what, if anything can be done.
Biggest lesson learned: Listen to your instincts. May not be what you want to hear, but it's probably right.
Recently, I was contacted via my company email by someone claiming to be a gentleman who was relocating to Edina, a fairly well to do suburb of Minneapolis. This gentleman gave me a complete breakdown of his home and told me exactly what he wanted done. We settled on a price of $550.00 (The house had 2 Living Rooms) and he said he would send me a check for the cleaning. He hadn't provided me with an address for the residence, but said that he was having some furniture delivered there and once that was done, the furniture person would provide me with the keys to the house and the address. Now since I am a small company and operate out of my home, I was a little hesitant to give him my address to send the check to, but the greedy side of me prevailed and I gave him the address.
I didn't hear from the guy for a couple of weeks and figured he had backed out, but then I got another email from him saying, "the check is in the mail". Lo and Behold, yesterday I get an envelope addressed to the company but with no return address. Inside is a cashiers check made out to the company in the amount of $4950.00.
. It was drawn on a bank in Florida. I emailed the gentleman asking what he wanted to do with the overage. But something kept nagging at me that this was all wrong. Finally, I looked up the bank on the internet and called the branch that the check was issued from. I told the person I spoke with that I had received this cashiers check and the amount was way over the amount that my "customer" and I had agreed on. She said, "Is the remitter Denny Thomas?" 
How could she have known that? I told her it was and she informed me that it was a fake. The bank sees a couple of these a week and that it is a scam. They ask you to cash the check and send the rest via Western Union to some address. Sure enough he replied rather quickly that this is what I should do with the overage.I was shocked, amazed, stunned angry and embarassed...but mostly at my self. How could I have not seen this coming? In my greed to get more business I overrode all my gut instincts. I have since forwarded all my emails and such to the authorities and am waiting to hear back from them on what, if anything can be done.
Biggest lesson learned: Listen to your instincts. May not be what you want to hear, but it's probably right.
