I Uncovered a $250,000 Business Scam!

There are scammers out there who will try targeting your business with big purchases! I cover the warning signs in this video. Be careful who you're doing business with!

Come hang with my on Instagram @pleasantgrn and Twitter @pleasantgreen

[markbrenner]

I'm a lawyer and scammers are actively trying to scam me into refunding them money from a retainer sent to me in the form of a fake check. They are using similar techniques to the ones outlined in this video, but I am playing with the scammers using the tips I got from all the Pleasant Green videos. I'm going to post a link to this video on my website so my business clients can be aware that this really does happen.
Thanks Pleasant Green. This is really helpful.

[willowwisp]

Just pray that pleasant green doesn't decide to become a scammer.

[BelleRose]

Small businesses are common targets of scams like this. Scammers don't care if they strip someone of their hard work and put them in the bankruptcy court.😠Glad you gave these guys what they deserve.

[rickoneill]

Scarry that even as someone like me that considers myself tech savvy could have fallen for this. Thank you for your service.

[lydiasinclair]

So funny! As an office manager for a couple Wells Fargo locations in Canada we constantly had invoices sent in from companies that we had never used. For things like office supplies, janitorial services, service or repairs to photo copiers, fax machine.. you name it. When the invoice would go unpaid we would get delinquent account notices and even threats of lawsuits. It was pretty funny. We knew immediately they were all scams. I always wondered how many would fall for something like that.

[EvilOverlord]

Native German speaker here. That document that he sent to stop the work has quite a few red flags, but is done surprisingly well otherwise. The German is more or less perfect and only uses a few weird words, that are semantically correct, but would not be used in such a context. Also, the Federal Office mentioned in that letter would not issue something like that because it's not in their jurisdiction. Plus they're definitely not in that city. And the stamp there says some random city, but has the Brandenburger Tor from Berlin used in it. In general, that letter is well made, by someone who clearly has some grasp of the German language. I'd say some Germans might also fall for it.

[dannydaw]

So many scams wouldn't work if banks could instantly verify if checks are good or not.

[theandonly]

I'm a self employed professional handyman. My jobs are much smaller than a quarter million. However, once in a while I receive requests from nice ladies who claim they just bought a new home in Edmonton (I live here) and would like it painted. The paint is pre ordered and if I accept a cheque for payment. The last time it turned out the cheque was supposed to cover the materials too and I was supposed to pay for something out of it. I knew it was fake, but they did a very detailed breakdown of the job, including exact dimensions of each room to be painted. The initial message definitely looked legit. Thanks for what you do. I learned a lot from your videos.

[raymondcaylor]

In my 26 year's of operating a Catering Business I got fleeced once out of $1, 380. It was a Church Group where they stopped payment on a check because they said the Youth Pastor didn't have the authority to sign the check. The check came 9 days before they arrived and stop payment notification came the day after they left. Calling the Church several times only got apologies and promises for action. Action that never came. My policy was payment in full 14 day's before event so really I have to take the responsibility. It's a shame people will scam you but it's a reality. There were several times clients checks were returned as NSF and I remember not letting guest's into the banquet room until they paid balance due in cash. They always paid. First they had friends, family, and clients already arriving plus they didn't want to lose the 50% deposit they'd already paid.

[ernestmeiehofer]

I always love getting a notification from Pleasant Green knowing that he has been wasting some more oxygen thief scammers time while giving them false hopes that they had their next victim on their phone. 🤡🤣😂💯

[mystified]

You should report this to the Canadian authorities

[Suebe]

Thank you, Ben for keeping us aware that scammers are out to get our $$$. I had a guy call me and said a bunch of guys would be in our neighborhood to check people's roofs for free to look for damage from recent storms, which really weren't that bad. He wanted to know if he could schedule a time with me. I was suspicious right away, because he didn't say what business he was with and kept assuring me that it would only take 10 minutes and it was free. I was afraid he would find some bogus claims and want to charge me. My roof is 2 years old. I told him a flat out NO and hung up. If he was legit, he was going about it the wrong way! I think I dodged a bullet with that one!

[Chaosand]

I didn't know how common business scams were until I became a manager. I would love to see more scambaiting content about business scams!

[CaptainMarvelsSon]

I've got to admit, it's more clever than most for the amount asked for and the time wasted.

[robertlawrence]

This is hilarious! I hope you submit this info to all authorities who can try to take down people like this. Thanks for keeping us aware!

[SylarArt]

This investigation was pretty intense, great job.

[sunnyand]

And another wonderous scammer group left in the dust😂! @plesantgreen your are in the GOAT Hall of Fame... 🏆

[texokopter]

As a native German speaker I noticed many little spelling mistakes on the fake "ARBEITSAUFTRAG STOPPEN" document. In German we write all nouns with capitalized first letter, but the scammers wrote some of them in lower case, like: Bauunternehmen, Fertigstellung, des Projekts. They also didin't capitalize the name of the city Karlstadt on the top of their website. In cases like this, running it through a spell checker might give a first hint that there is something wrong.

[carolinebjerkelund]

That was crazy! What bugged me was that they used Canada. So glad you out smarted them.

[davem]

Awesome video... these guys are getting sneaky. Someone tried to steal my 1964 Impala I was selling, by sending a deposit through Walmart money transfer, and he said he has a friend nearby that would pick up the car with a certified check(I’m sure fake), so of course I’d have to transfer the title, hence, my car would be gone. I was skeptical because I’ve never used a money transfer like that, and the guy was pretty persistent that I go to Walmart. Plus, we can’t just sign over a title where I am. I have to go to my dmv in person to do it. And they were closed for the weekend. Someone would’ve had themselves a really nice impala. Happy to say the impala later went to a good home.