# Latest Scam Targeting Painters



## Vic B (Dec 12, 2018)

This past Friday I got a text from a local number asking me to meet at a home and give an exterior bid. The exact message "I want to repaint the whole exterior part of my house in Portland, Oregon is it possible for you to stop by and take a look at it? thanks Noel Jordan"
I looked it up on Zillow to get a little more familiar with the house and noticed the house was for sale. Thought it was kind of weird since the house looked to be in pretty good shape. Anyhow, I drove out there and sure enough the house has relatively fresh paint on it and I'm 15min past the time we were supposed to meet and no one has arrived yet. I dial the number and I get a machine "we're sorry but our business hours are..." ect. 

At this point all of my suspicions solidified and I knew I wasted my time coming there. I told a buddy of mine and he found an article online talking about a new scam that targets painters. 

I can't link to the article because I'm a new member but if someone else wants to its called: "Call for Action Investigation: Scam targets house painters" and its on the kktv website. 

Has anyone come across scams like this? What's your scammer or suspicious client story?


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## finishesbykevyn (Apr 14, 2010)

So what was the scam?

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## Pete Martin the Painter (Nov 8, 2012)

finishesbykevyn said:


> So what was the scam?
> 
> Sent from my SM-T330NU using Tapatalk


This has been done to me many many times. The first time I had no idea, until they were asking me to conduct finacially transactioms for them. Not sure how the scam works, but I think that they have stolen credit cards. They are not very bright though. They always pick a house that is still on the market. I always check to make sure they are actually a scam...ask them to meet me at the house, but they never are able to for various reasons, but it usually because they are in the hospital.

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## Mr Smith (Mar 11, 2016)

This is an old scam. They promise to pay you more than you quoted and ask for a small payment back for various reasons. The cheque they send you has been cancelled and they hope you fall for it. Most often a cheque takes 5 business days to clear and these scammers hope you send payment via wire transfer before you know the cheque is bogus.


"A home for sale near Woodmen and Black Forest roads is where a Colorado Springs house painter was sent to measure and give an estimate for an exterior paint job.

But Mike Finley became suspicious when he noticed the home didn't look like it needed painting -- and the so-called owner had a sudden excuse for not being there.

After Mike submitted a bid, the man sent Mike a check for $4,000, three times the amount of the deposit. He then told Mike to put the money in the bank, keep the $1,000, and wire the extra $3,000 to a plumber who supposedly was working on the house too.

Mike smelled a rat, called the bank, and learned the check was no good."

https://www.kktv.com/content/news/Scam-Targeting-House-Painters-389533472.html


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## Woodco (Nov 19, 2016)

I can spot them a mile away, cuz they always say stuff like "Good Day sir" "Kindly" speak broken english, and ask if I accept credit cards. 

My buddy took one of those checks to a Casino and tried to cash it. He was actually arrested on the spot. He was the second one that day to try with the same fake check. 

I really didnt think it was illegal to try to cash a check like that.

It wasnt a cancelled check either, it was a total forgery. That was the illegal part.


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## Wildbill7145 (Apr 30, 2014)

Woodco said:


> I can spot them a mile away, cuz they always say stuff like "Good Day sir" "Kindly" speak broken english, and ask if I accept credit cards.
> 
> My buddy took one of those checks to a Casino and tried to cash it. He was actually arrested on the spot. He was the second one that day to try with the same fake check.
> 
> ...



I remember you've mentioned that story before about your buddy and I thought that was odd at the time.



That's so weird that someone would get arrested. How would they know the cheque was forged? I guess if you knew something was up ahead of time, that would be problematic. At the end of the day I guess it comes down to mens rea or criminal intent. If you in fact knew it was forged or a reasonable person would believe it was forged and tried to cash it yer hooped.


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## Fman (Aug 20, 2011)

Wildbill7145 said:


> I remember you've mentioned that story before about your buddy and I thought that was odd at the time.
> 
> 
> 
> That's so weird that someone would get arrested. How would they know the cheque was forged? I guess if you knew something was up ahead of time, that would be problematic. At the end of the day I guess it comes down to mens rea or criminal intent. If you in fact knew it was forged or a reasonable person would believe it was forged and tried to cash it yer hooped.


I had to look "mens rea" up! Learn something new every day!


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## jennifertemple (Oct 30, 2011)

Vic B said:


> I can't link to the article because I'm a new member but if someone else wants to its called: "Call for Action Investigation: Scam targets house painters" and its on the kktv website.


Here it is:
https://www.kktv.com/content/news/Scam-Targeting-House-Painters-389533472.html


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## Wildbill7145 (Apr 30, 2014)

Fman said:


> I had to look "mens rea" up! Learn something new every day!



Did you also find "Actus reus"?


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## PNW Painter (Sep 5, 2013)

The other tell is when they include the state when they’re telling you where the house is located. 


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## Woodco (Nov 19, 2016)

Wildbill7145 said:


> I remember you've mentioned that story before about your buddy and I thought that was odd at the time.
> 
> 
> 
> That's so weird that someone would get arrested. How would they know the cheque was forged? I guess if you knew something was up ahead of time, that would be problematic. At the end of the day I guess it comes down to mens rea or criminal intent. If you in fact knew it was forged or a reasonable person would believe it was forged and tried to cash it yer hooped.


He was the second one that day to try to cash the same check in that casino. Casinos ore more secure than banks. My buddy didnt actually break the law. They arrested him for check forging, which he didnt actually do, but he sat in jail all weekend and had to get a lawyer. He dissapeared shortly afterwards, so I dont know what happened with it. Im sure he got off.

He asked me my opnion about the check, as he knew it was suspicious. I said deposit it. Its not illegal. Oops.


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## Vic B (Dec 12, 2018)

I'm going to play this one out. I'll ask for a deposit and when they send me the fraudulent check I'll take it to the bank and report it along with the account they want the money transfered to. Not sure if it'll do any good, but I'll do it anyway.


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## gthomson (Jun 19, 2018)

I've had similar on craigslist when I try to sell things. Posted a few recently, and the responders wanted them and willing to pay extra on one of them because they really wanted it. Would pay via certified/cashier's check, and have somebody else pick up the things. Then they send additional beyond the price, and ask to have you send the extra on to some other person. Craigslist and friends both said it's a scam and certified/cashier's check is bogus, so then in a week the bank comes after you to get the money back. Certified/cashier's checks used to be trusted, but I guess no longer...


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## RH (Sep 7, 2010)

gthomson said:


> I've had similar on craigslist when I try to sell things. Posted a few recently, and the responders wanted them and willing to pay extra on one of them because they really wanted it. Would pay via certified/cashier's check, and have somebody else pick up the things. Then they send additional beyond the price, and ask to have you send the extra on to some other person. Craigslist and friends both said it's a scam and certified/cashier's check is bogus, so then in a week the bank comes after you to get the money back. Certified/cashier's checks used to be trusted, but I guess no longer...


We sold a car via Craigslist a few years back. They wanted to pay with a check - so we met them at their credit union and had one drafted to us there.


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## brushmonkey (Jan 4, 2010)

I just fell for this jerk Nolan Jordan's scam last week. Same text message word for word.
I submitted rough price quote till we could meet for contract paperwork etc. 
I got a text response this morning from "Nolan" wanting to send me a check for 50% of the quote price. 

Right about this time is when my spidey sense activated so I had my real estate agent brother check out who actually owns the home & ..what a shock... it wasn't Nolan. 

I then Googled latest paint scams in Gresham and this PT article came up. 

I'm in the process of formulating an appropriate foul mouthed response to his text while I string him along & figure out how to either bust him or at somehow screw him over good!

Stay tuned.


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## sla0392 (8 mo ago)

finishesbykevyn said:


> So what was the scam?
> 
> Sent from my SM-T330NU using Tapatalk




My partner just opened her own painting company in Alabama, she has had this scam ATTEMPTED on her twice now. 
This is how they went:
first one- Texted needing painting done, wouldnt answer the phone, home was a townhouse currently for sale, realtor confirmed it was a scam. Every time we called it went to a Google assistant action voice messaging. 

2nd time- the name was Alex Hall, he actually did call once but when we tried to call back the same Google assistant thing happened. claims he just purchased this home (it’s still on the market) , was a very low income property, had a pen!s spray painted on the wall and overgrown bushes. She actually wasted her time to go view it but got suspicious when he wasn’t able to meet in person. Called the realtor and she never heard of this Alex hall. We decided to play into and string the POS along, texted back an outrageous and absurd estimate. The guy says “Fits right in my budget let’s get started asap” LOL.

We asked for a 50% down deposit, and he says we can charge it to his credit card and will pay the remainder with a check when job is completed. He sends a link to set up a credit card merchant and we just end up calling his bluff. 
I was really just curious what they got out of this and I feel so bad for the people who actually wasted their time doing the work. 
Scammers = scum. Hope this helps someone like this forum helped us! Cheers.


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