Perry Andre – Fake Customer Scam

Victim Location 98296

Type of a scam Other

Fake customer approached our small business, attempting to arrange for home improvement work to be done on a home. However, the home is owned by someone else (who had no idea that a fake customer was trying to contract work to be done on her home). Fake customer gets an estimate from us; approves of estimate; offers to pay 50% down with a credit card; and wants to have the work done. Fake customer insists that he is the owner of the house. Our company was able to reach out to the REAL owner of the home and verify that she is the owner and had no knowledge of the fake customer or the attempt to contract work to be done. We hope that other small businesses (especially in construction) do their due diligence to make sure that they are dealing with the TRUE homeowner of any job site. The "red flags" for us were… 1. Out-of-state phone number 2. Wanted to pay with credit card 3. Broken english on text message 4. Texted strange questions like "how are you?" during the process 5. Claimed to be the owner of the home