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.. and as the article fails to mention.. what about the bloody TREES!? Imagine scammers cutting down a century-old, beautiful tree just to make a few hundred dollars. What a scummy, short-term, selfish thing to do. GRRRR.
Stories like this make me consider that humans deserve to go extinct. Maybe raccoons and corvids will do a better job of caring for this planet.
If they actually cut them down, could you invoke TREE LAW? Wrongfully cutting down trees can lead to massive fines in the US, since they are so hard to replace.
Especially since you could pull this scam with a whole lot of other businesses that wold not result in cutting down trees.
Your mistake is thinking that scammers care about those things.
Oh they do. This is one of the most common types of scams out there. It sucked that I technically had to participate in many attempts at these because I worked as a relay operator prior to there being rules allowing us to disconnect obvious scammers.
Those guys are amateurs. Try being the Uk government—compulsorily purchase private land for new rail line, hand lucrative contracts to your mates to clear mature oaks (which they get to keep, worth £5k each), accidentally clear more than is needed, then cancel the rail line.
Or Sheffield council and Amey cutting down healthy trees because they thought it would generate more profit in the street maintenance contract.
I doubt I've ever seen a farce as big as the east leg of HS2.
It's linking London and Leeds. No, it's linking London and a tram stop 10 miles outside Nottingham. No, it's linking London to the ruins of the last coal power station in Britain, and a bus stop to East Midlands Airport for some reason, even though London has like 4 fucking airports anyway and they all go to the same shithole cheap Euro dumps that EMA flies to. Ah you know what fuck it, you're not getting HS2 at all.
Why are Americans still dealing with checks in the age of digital banking?
That same scam is also ran on every other payment method. These would all be prevented by not accepting checks that aren't for the exact amount and don't pay the difference in cash to the check writer.
One reason is to avoid card transaction fees. For smaller companies providing often expensive services, like tree felling, they'll pass on the card transaction fee to the client or recommend they just pay by check to avoid it.
Boomer contractors who can't figure out how to take a payment on a mobile device.
Because the US detests change of any form, even if it will make things better.
More and more it seems like it’s especially if it’s gonna make things better lol
I still have to have a checkbook because my dog groomer and my tree trimmer/gutter cleaner companies both refuse to accept cards. They are small businesses and don't want to deal with the fees. My options are go get cash every time, or keep a checkbook on hand to write checks. While I understand their reasoning, it's infuriating that checks even still exist.
This story makes me excited for the day we might someday have a tree-law or perhaps even bird-law sublemmy of our own.
Someday perhaps.
Tree law is a thing, there are big lawsuits in the states over trees.
The Japanese government recently arrested members of a big auto dealership for allegedly killings a few trees in front of their buildings.
Tree law was one of the few subreddits that I would actually read everytime I saw a post pop up in my feed. Something so satisfying about a good case of tree law.
Or a scam-law...
The scam in question, from the article:
McKcraken said he never requested a tree removal service and didn’t want any trees at his Forest Hills house — which he’s trying to sell — removed.
“They’re trying to target vacant houses because the owners won’t know,” he said. “So that they can post themselves as the owner, and the owners won’t be home to stop it and won’t be home to notice it if the tree services do show up.”
The Wilson County Sheriff’s Office said the scheme begins with a scammer calling or emailing a tree service company for a quote on how much it would be to cut down trees. After receiving an estimated amount, they send the company a faulty check for more than needed.
Before the company realizes the checks are null and void, the scammer asks the company to pay back the difference.
“They send you a check for $1,500, and they want you to send $500 back to them,” Adam Barbee with Arbor Sense said. “And then that way, they take $500, and you try to go cash the check, and the check is no good.”
“They send you a check for $1,500, and they want you to send $500 back to them,” Adam Barbee with Arbor Sense said. “And then that way, they take $500, and you try to go cash the check, and the check is no good.”
If someone sends me a check for $500 more than they should have, I would just have them send me another and void the incorrect one. Checks that don't match invoices make for sloppy books.
And oddly the only way to buy weed on plastic around here (legally) is for you to use a debit card, which they round up to the next $5 and give you back the change (which most usually ends up in the budtenders tip jar anyway).
It’s because the way the law is written, it’s actually processed as an ATM transaction.
Obviously this is a legal loophole, but there are legitimate reasons to extract more than necessary.
Makes you wonder why so many are willing to just send some money back.
Usually they camp it in language where they are only able to cut one check (company policy of one check per PO, for example), but they need to pay two people, you and another facilitator such as a transport service. The extra money is to pay for the transport service, which is actually also the scammer.
Good idea.
That is like, actually one of the oldest scams in the book. I'm impressed.
That's a pretty interesting scam.
People have been doing similar scam on used car sellers for years.
Example being I post a car for sale. Scammer offers to buy. Scammer brings check higher than the agreed price. Tells me I can deposit the whole check, just give them difference back in cash. Scammer leaves with that cash and the car. Few days later bank tells me the check was no good.
Used to hear about that often enough Craigslist even sent out warnings to sellers.
I dunno, if you cut someone's tree down, you're responsible--even if you thought you had permission.
And the tree's owner can sue you for comically large amounts of money. Ye olde r/bestoflegaladvice actually had to ban tree law posts for much the same reason that r/nocontext had to ban content from r/crusaderkings.
Yeah I was thinking about tree law lol lol
Jesus fuck. The scammers are bad enough, but the businesses that don't recognize the obvious overpayment scam should be somewhat liable. These types of overpayment scams are so common, so well-known, and so blatantly obvious I really have no sympathy for idiots who fall for them.
I have yet to run into a single company who's AP/AR departments aren't either overworked, inept, or both.
A lot of this hinges on how sloppy and mistake prone banks are, how all of the overworked/inept AP/AR departments have to work with the AP/AR departments of other outfits who are in the same boat, how ridiculous credit card companies are with their "expense account" offerings, and how too many vendors think "we'll just keep charging them and hope they don't notice" is a valid business model.
These scams work on companies because messing up the amount on a check and it not clearing is only MARGINAL stupidity compared to the day-to-day operations they deal with. If the scammers spell the company name right, they're one up on most accounts payable departments.
What a bizarrely specific scam. Shouldn't take too long until everyone in that line of work in a particular area catches up on it.
Overpayment and asking for cash back is one of the most common scams, it’s hardly specific. You can replace tree felling with just about anything. They’re just the latest victims.
Yeah, and not to diminish or demean any victims, but waiting for any check to clear before reimbursement is a solution, or requesting a new check and ripping / voiding the old one on receiving the new check in the correct amount.
And if someone gets mad at you for that, they're either scamming you or they're not being accountable for their mistake.
The scam is old AF, it’s just new targets. If you’ve tried to sell a car in the last 20 years, you’ve dealt with someone trying to pull it. Or rent a room or house, there’s a reason Airbnb is popular with owners, even for long term situations.
This sounds like the shittest scam ever and one that is very easy to avoid.