New Scam Targets Business Owners in Northern Wisconsin

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) Serving Wisconsin is warning businesses about a recent scam targeting home improvement contractors in Northern Wisconsin.

Scammers are texting businesses from a 708 area code (Chicago/Northern Illinois), asking for a quote on a home improvement project. Two Northern Wisconsin businesses were contacted this week by scammers. Both businesses are painters, but BBB believes all home improvement contractors could be targeted in this scam. In addition, both businesses were told by the scammers that they were referred by the BBB. This is untrue.

How the scam works: A business receives a text message or email from a scammer posing as a prospective customer. The scammer says he's from the Chicago area and has a vacation home in Northern Wisconsin or is moving to the area. He asks for a quote from the business for a painting job, but will not allow the contractor to go inside the home. In one case, the location that the scammer was using was a home listed online for sale.

The scammers also asked the business owners if they accept checks. For this reason, the BBB believes this is a classic overpayment scam in which the scammer sends the business owner a check for over the amount quoted and asks the business owner to return via wire transfer the money that was overpaid. The original check is then discovered to be counterfeit and the business owner loses the money that was wired to the scammer.

"I get these offers all the time as a result of my Google listing," says Corey Bero, owner of Corey's Drywall in Crivitz. "Whenever I post my company phone number, I begin to hear from these scammers. I'm happy to help the BBB in spreading the word about this so other contractors don't fall for it."

Fortunately, both business owners recognized the suspicious communications as a scam, contacted the BBB and didn't lose any money.

"Unfortunately, businesses can be prime targets of scammers, too" says Jim Temmer, president/CEO of the BBB Serving Wisconsin. "We're especially concerned because the scammer used BBB's name to make his request seem more credible."

BBB offers these tips to both businesses and consumers to spot this scam:

• Be immediately suspicious of overpayments. A check can bounce even after your bank allows you to withdraw cash from the deposit. Even if a bank representative tells you that a check has “cleared” you can’t be sure it won’t be detected as a fake weeks later. One thing you can be sure of is that you’ll be on the hook for any funds drawn against the amount.
• Never send money to people you don’t know, especially if they ask for money in an unusual form such as wire transfer or prepaid debit card. Don't share personally identifiable information like date-of-birth, bank or credit card accounts, passwords, etc. with anyone you do not know. Don’t prepay taxes, insurance, or fees on something you have supposedly won.
• Be wary of requests for estimates or quotes from homeowners outside of your normal service area, especially if they tell you they can't give you access to the home for you to provide your estimate. Scammers are professional con artists, who are able to overcome any objections you may have and whose stories can be very persuasive. Search online for the home's address; if it's listed "for sale", it could be a red flag since scammers often use online home listings to perpetrate their scams.

To report a scam, go to BBB Scam Tracker. Click HERE for an online version of this alert.

For more information or further inquiries, contact the Wisconsin BBB at www.bbb.org/wisconsin, 414-847-6000 or 1-800-273-1002. Consumers also can find more information about how to protect themselves from scams by following the Wisconsin BBB on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.