I was recently contacted by text by a prosective client who said they found me on Yelp. He said he was moving to Tampa from Ohio. (Oddly, thats where I’m from originally). He asked to correspond by email only because he was moving and needed my email address. I thought this was strange because it is on Yelp already. After waiting 1 day he emailed me an urgent request for a quote on an inspection. He said after his wife approved of my quote they would pay in advance by cashiers check. The address he gave was a huge 5,400 sq.ft. home with 5 bed, 6 bath in Tampa, FL. However, he said he couldn’t give me his realtor information yet. I looked up the house. It had just been sold 2 weeks prior. I’ve heard of scams where they ask that you overcharge credit cards for them, but this is puzzling to me as to how this certifed check scam works. Anyone have this experience before? Any response would be appreciated. His name was given was Stan Dutchman. Email was : rushstan2324@gmail.com. Thanks for reading
Scot Sudbury
Scam, delete and move on.
You’re not the only one being scammed on this same property…
Welcome to our forum, Scot!
You get check. It’s for more than you wanted/asked for.
You deposit check, and send or give difference to “helper”, “mover”, “handyman”, “mold inspector”, etc.etc.
He gets the extra $$ (the other entity is a straw man),
You get a NSF notice from your bank along with a fee, as the check is bogus or fraudulent.
So you lose the extra, and the fee, and possibly more if you open yourself up to this scam (such as ACH transfer, or other shell games)
Tell him you want $5k for the inspection, and he will say ok!
Then tell him to make the check out to
“Iva Hue Jass”
Or
“Hugo chit Urself”
LOL!..Daniel!
My check was made out to my dog
Probably a scam… in any case, verify the contract and names with the listing agency. The listing agency can tell you the selling agent in the contract. If it’s FSBO then let the client know you can not proceed with scheduling until you have the info you need.
If anyone starts out with some long bullsh!t story… don’t waste your time. Yelp seems to draw those kind of scams…
There are more scams coming in these days than you can shake a stick at. The sad thing is the amount of time we waste on them even confirming they are scams because someone on our team, often times Margaret, but many times all of us still have to be professional & tret them with respect because you never know if they may be a legit & a few that seemed to be scams just about, turned out to be legit, but the scams have definitely gone from 0 to 100 in less than 60 seconds.
No time wasted here. I waste approx 5 seconds on these scams, because they always come in a text, and it can be smelled from a mile away.
I don’t even respond, unless I feel like having some fun.
Do you get these pieces of crap actually calling you?
Here are three I got this week, and I am fairly certain the one asking about Tampa is the same one that the OP was also contacted by…two people on this forum asked about the exact same home.
Daniel,
I am with you 110%. If they had have texted me, I probably would not even have barely read it.
Yes, they actually call & of course a few e-mail too, but those are usually pretty obvious just like the text thing you mentioned. All you have to do is read their writing; what writing? We had one just about identical to it a few weeks ago that was more up this way.
I would reply “Give me a call to further discuss”.
I doubt “Stan” would have any problem talking to his future contractor. In fact, who does not do this?
Finally, if he calls…be sure to remind him that you do not accept checks and you will not be paying any vendors that do not work for you contractually.
He will go away if not legit.
This is what I always respond with. The majority of the time you will not get a call.
Good Luck!