Good afternoon, . Here is this week's newsletter:
Firstly, take a look at the photos of some of our service agents. They're in front of an ad on one of 7 digital monitors. You'll see me as the one with the blue jacket:
Secondly, here's a story on how I almost got scammed by someone who acted as a customer on Google:
When I checked my email on Friday night, I noticed a customer request through my Google Business Profile. It was from someone named Jestine, and they asked if we were available for service and if we did payment through check. I responded to their question the next morning, since it was late night when I had found the email. I told them that we would find a solution for them to mow their lawn and that we didn’t do payment through check. The customer told us that check was the only way they could make payment. We told the customer that we could do e-transfer and cash. The customer then asked what bank we do our businesses with. At first, I was hesitant to tell them, so I asked my mom, and she said I should do it, so I told the customer what bank we were with. They then wanted to make a deposit after the estimation of the property, and they expected the deposit to be done today, so I told them that we only take in money after a cut has been completed, and that we needed to know their address so we could make an estimation, they gave me an address that led to a small house in southern Scarborough (around Warden and Danforth). Since we had a service agent 10 was a 10 minute drive away, I told the customer that the cut would be most likely $30, and that I would try to find a solution for them. Later on, in the afternoon, they told me that they would send me a check of $1000 to deposit into my bank account and that I would keep $40 and give the rest to their plumber. I reminded the customer that we only take in money after a cut has been completed, and that we are not responsible for banking affairs outside of our business. I felt something was wrong, as customers would never ask us to deposit money to other people. I also told them that we were trying to find a solution for them and asked for their preferred date and time, but they didn’t seem to listen, as they then asked me for my full name and my email. I told them these 2 pieces of information, and told them once again that we don’t take in money before a cut has been completed, and that it would take some time for us to figure out a solution for them, and that there would be a chance that it wouldn’t work out. The customer still tried to send me the check, and I told them to not do that since we hadn’t figured out if we could be able to mow their lawn. They then told me that they needed me to help them with a little favour, so I told them that we were trying our best to help them, but the customer was not complying with us, and they told us that their plumber needed the money, then giving me the instructions on how to send money to the plumber, telling me I needed to send $1,500 to them. By then I knew that something was clearly not adding up, so I told the customer again that we don’t affiliate our financial affairs with other businesses, and that they would have to figure out how to pay their plumber themselves. They then told me that they already sent me the check and explained to me that their plumber uses third party apps, which was why I needed to deposit the check and pay the plumber. Not knowing what to do, I decided to ask my dad about this situation, and told him about what was happening. He then realized that the customer was actually a scammer, and that he was trying to steal all my money. My dad then told me to download the check, and found it was in my spam folder. There were actually 2 documents (one was the check), and when I looked over them I realized that something was very wrong and that this "customer" was really a scammer in disguise. Not only was the check from a bank in Illinois, the person who sent me the email was someone entirely different! So when I asked the customer who the person who sent me the email was, and why the bank was in Illinois, they told me that the person was their account officer, and that I would send the money to him, and that when I was finished with depositing the money, I would then confirm it to him. My dad then told me to stop responding to him, so I simply did so. I learned a very important lesson that day and avoided getting myself from getting into big trouble. Not only did I prevent myself from getting scammed, I had also prevented the loss of my money.
That's it for this week!
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