So I wasted 10 min of my time which could have faired worse. So be forewarned.?ÿ
Got an email through my web page requesting a quote for a survey and if I take credit cards. I responded back with the typical follow up, what kind of survey, address, purpose, etc. & that I have square pay app, so yeah, I can take credit cards (only done it once). He responds with a Request for a topographic and boundary survey for a specific address. I take 10 min to look up info on the property and look at the imagery in GIS.?ÿ
I??ve done this enough to know not to spend too much time for tire kickers so I write a paragraph response with a quote to cover any contingencies that I can foresee. I told him if he is interested I would write a formal fee proposal and would require half down.?ÿ
His response was to move forward and he would have a deposit for me.?ÿ
....then, at the end of the email, ??but I will need a favor from you.?
At this point I can tell this ain??t right.
Sure enough, the next email, ??you can charge my credit card your deposit amount plus $3,700 so that you can send a check to my architect because he doesn??t take credit cards?
WOW! Just wow! I??ve heard of this scam before but not targeted at professional services.?ÿ
what gets me is that not only is he trying to scam me out of $3700, but have me waste my professional efforts performing work on someone else??s property. That??s awfully bold.?ÿ
AKsurveyor, ?ÿ I'm not positive but I think I have someone trying to scam me too.?ÿ
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So I get a text message from an out of state phone number late Friday afternoon that read.
"Hello, how are you today? I'm Richard Bxxxx I would like to know if you are available to take a land Survey?"
I never responded, partly because it just didn't sound right and I was already done working for the day. Then this morning I get an email that read.
"Hello, I'm Mark . I would like to know if you are available to do land Survey and what type of credit card do you accept? "
The wording in the text and email are too similar to be a coincidence. I wasn't planning on responding to the email either but is this similar to how they first contacted you?
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Corey
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I have received several of those and as with you I was gob smacked that they would try that with professional services but after thinking about it for a moment surveyors may be a target rich opportunity.?ÿ
Think about it for a moment about how many surveyor are out there hungry and barely eking out a existence and would jump at the opportunity.?ÿ
I would bet that this scam is yielding a lot of fruit.
Anyone can to go their bank and send you money by paper or electronic bank transfer.
When they are not willing to do that, they are not going to pay you.
I've received several as well.
I'd like to respond with; I do not accept credit cards, cash only, all up front, 2 months before I start...
But I just ignore them; not worth my time
I get them all the time in my Email inbox. They are oddly worded and I can generally tell what they are from the title and the first few words of the email so I don't have to open them. My spam filter seems to have caught on to them somehow and I will see them in clutter about every two weeks or so.
It's not just surveyors, others have complained about them to me also, even the little office down the hall that is basically an NGO.
I've gotten a couple as well.?ÿ The first one seemed legit at first, so I submitted a proposal and then got the CC ask.?ÿ I don't take CC, so that ended the conversation.?ÿ When the second one came in I knew better than to bother responding.
I didn’t get a call or text, it was all by email.
I was a little skeptical from the get go; poor grammar, and sentence structure.
The one and only time I did take a credit card was from a guy who paid cash for the land and was building out of pocket. Of course I met him in person too.
We got one of those a few months ago.?ÿ The boss and I both get the email from the website inquiries.?ÿ I ignored it because it looked suspicious.?ÿ He forwarded it to me and told me to take care of it.?ÿ I told him I thought it was a scam, and explained why.?ÿ Well, he pursued it, and sure enough, it didn't take long for them to get to the point where he wanted to pay extra so we could forward the amount to an architect.
I would love to have enough time to string these people along, but I can't afford the brain cells!