WilshireHomeowner narrowly saves trees from removal scam
mwproductionsThe scam in question, from the article:
McKcraken said he never requested a tree removal service and didn’t want any trees at his Forest Hills house — which he’s trying to sell — removed.
“They’re trying to target vacant houses because the owners won’t know,” he said. “So that they can post themselves as the owner, and the owners won’t be home to stop it and won’t be home to notice it if the tree services do show up.”
The Wilson County Sheriff’s Office said the scheme begins with a scammer calling or emailing a tree service company for a quote on how much it would be to cut down trees. After receiving an estimated amount, they send the company a faulty check for more than needed.
Before the company realizes the checks are null and void, the scammer asks the company to pay back the difference.
“They send you a check for $1,500, and they want you to send $500 back to them,” Adam Barbee with Arbor Sense said. “And then that way, they take $500, and you try to go cash the check, and the check is no good.”
Ookami38That is like, actually one of the oldest scams in the book. I’m impressed.
Yeah, this is textbook check fraud. The specific scam is called the fake check scam (who could have guessed?) It’s extremely common in online marketplaces too. Lots of “oh I’m sending a check to pay for your (very expensive) item and for the movers. If you could give $500 to the movers that’d be great.” Now you’ve handed the scammer $500 and they’ve stolen the item you had for sale.
For instance, let’s say you’re selling a motorcycle on Facebook marketplace. You’ll get contacted by someone offering your asking price. You accept. They overpay by like $500, and tell you that the excess is for the movers who show up to collect the bike. So you pay the dude $500 to take the bike. Then their payment bounces/gets reversed, and you’re out the payment you gave to the mover (really just the scammer, or the scammer’s friend,) and they stole your bike without paying for it.
I’m guessing they’ve pivoted to cutting trees because the online marketplaces wised up and started warning sellers about the potential scam.