“Jason Ward” reached out to me last week and explained he was buying a house in Owatonna and needed me to pressure wash the exterior of the house before they moved. I agreed after I looked at the location, confirmed it was on the market and did need to be cleaned. I quoted him $600. He said he was wondering if he paid me, if I could pay a delivery company for him while I was cleaning, $1000 before and then the other $1000 after they delivered; he also overpaid me by $300 “for the trouble”. I said no problem but when he asked if I could pay the delivery company before the check arrived / cleared I said no. The check actually came on Saturday (from The Walking Company in California) and I deposited it on Sunday, it cleared in the bank this morning (Tuesday). My account now has an extra $2900. I tried to VENMO the delivery guy “Joeseph Dooley” and it did not go through. He provided me with the delivery company venmo (Adex Change, Leroy Boyce) and it didn’t go through again. When I questioned why the delivery company needed to come at the same I was cleaning since I was paying them through Venmo and I was cleaning the exterior of the house without access to get into the house, he explained the listing agent was going to let them in. I looked up the listing agent and called her to find out she doesn’t know this person “Jason Ward.” That is not the owner and there was no prospective buyer in the picture. I went to the police station and he said this happened a couple weeks ago to a different cleaning company who was commissioned by someone out of town to clean the interior of the house before they moved in and pay the delivery company $2000, which she did. But the check they sent her came back a couple weeks later with insufficient funds and she was then out the $2000 she had paid the “delivery company.”
The officer I talked to said to quit correspondence with “Jason” and obviously not transfer any money. By this time, Jason had started insisting that I send a wire transfer to the delivery company so his family could move while he was away on business. So I told Jason that the listing agent didn’t know him. I told him the police and the bank that they were very interested in my story since he had just done this same thing a couple weeks ago. I told him the police had his number, his venmo accounts and his wire transfer account… which isn’t true but I would love to spark just a little bit of anxiety, if possible 😉
Just a reminder to do business with people we know or at the very least local people. Even though it looks like the money is in my bank account, I have no doubt it will be removed next week when the check is confirmed with insufficient funds.
Please feel free to share my email and story. Thank you!
Carlie Veeder, Owner of Polished Commercial Cleaning Company
