WOM Warning!

Local neighborhood groups on social media (Word Of Mouth) are prime targets for SCAMMERS. Because we often assume the service offered is from the person next door, down the street around the corner. SCAMMERS take advantage of the misplaced trust and will ask for “down payment” zelle, venmo, paypal funds upfront. The problem is this isn’t your neighbor and they aren’t going to come to your house to do any of the things they solicited.

Many operate on a large scale using the same copy/paste text for their post. You may have seen these before that start with some version of “My autistic son designed this honestly I am amazed at his great work. He asked everyone how his work was. Please Encourage him.” Try it out for yourself in Facebook search for “My autistis son” and you can see dozens of live scams. Sometimes they send you to websites that look like they are selling product, which you either never receive and/or they steal your credit card information.

In this case the person posing as your local yocal sends a shout out to your small neighborhood group saying they provide a service in your area. No business name, no license number to look up .. and it’s likely their facebook profile looks pretty generic so you can’t spot a thief by looks alone.

What I like to do first, is copy and paste the post into Facebook search. If it’s a big chain, they likely SPAM several groups with the same SCAM narrative.

Ask for referrals from other people YOU KNOW that live in the vicinity. Insist on paying AFTER services rendered. And as a rule, I never buy anything (t-shits, do-dads) from links that I don’t run by SCAM ADVISER first.