Scammers Using TT to Contact Pros

[Jamesenator]

Thank you.

If the customer is paying via credit card, should I hold the funds for 30 days after delivery of the project?

[MR]

@Jamesenator  You may not have to wait 30 days... depends on how fast your cc clearing company works.. but most are under 10 days if not faster.

If you havent committed, tell them that all funds are held for 30 days and no refunds will be made in that time... see if that scares them off,

[Jamesenator]

Awesome, thanks for your advice!

[Kameron]

@Jamesenator I'm quite sorry to hear about this but appreciate you using the interaction as a lesson to help other pros. This contact sounds questionable to me so if you haven't already I recommend reporting the customer in the messenger. To do this, go to your inbox, open the customer's message, and use the report button in the messenger. We’ll review the report within 24 hours and share an update with you on any next steps we took. For more information about when and what to report see this page: Report suspicious activity.

[MR]

@Jamesenator   Great and best of luck.   A scam like that is common for us lawyers... people say they need urgent legal help and give you a big retainer check only to cancel the next day saying they no longer need a lawyer... by law we have to return 100% of the retainer upon request so many lawyers have been burned by that. I have a policy in my fee agreement contract that says I will hold all retainers for no less than 10 days so I am sure that scares away the would-be con artists.

[burgundyram]

👍🏽

[StudentCircle]

James,

I was targeted by the same sort of scam years ago while living in Seattle (I live in 'Bama now). I was advised to never ever ever ever cash that check. It seems you did -- I was told that they are able to access certain banking information once you cash their check. That didn't make any sense to me, but I didn't cash the check.

Please update if there's any further action.

[smcclos]

I do computer repairs, so I expect full payment as soon as the job is done. I also make it easy for people to pay me.  I accept paypal, venmo, Square and cash (if traveling to the customer and in front of him or her)

There have been remote jobs where I charge per hour, but I explain completely that cost per hour, and estimated hours of work.

Maybe with such a rush job, request a retainer of 25% before you start the work because you need to move aside other work. I have not been stiffed a job, but those 5 minutes when we close the job and waiting for payment are a little tense.

[crussell821]

I was corresponding with a job poster and I think he was about to hire me, but now the request is showing up as ‘expired’ with a message that says ‘this lead was suspicious so we removed it for now.’ Will I be automatically refunded for this? And how do you deem a lead suspicious?

[Meckell]

@crussell821 Yes, you will automatically be refunded for this. There are a variety of things that can deem a lead as suspicious and our system tries to catch this activity quick to keep pros like yourself safe.