When a man calling himself Mike Eldridge contacted me saying he’d found me online and needed someone to build a website for his Florida-based auto body repair shop, I had no reason to suspect otherwise. He seemed nice enough and had plenty of details about his project. He told me what their service areas were and what pages they knew they needed. He said the name of his business was “Blues Auto Body Repair” and when I googled it (just to be safe), I did indeed find the Facebook page for a business with that name (it’s typical for businesses to have a Facebook page long before they have a website).
So I completed a proposal for him and was delighted when he signed it after a few days and said he wanted to move forward with my middle-tier package. I did what I always do after a client signs a proposal: I sent him my working agreement, an email asking what the best days and times were for Zoom meetings, and an invoice for the 50% deposit.
And it wasn’t until then that I got an email back and knew it was all a scam.
“I will need a little favor from you and the favor is that I will send you my card to charge the sum of $— plus any taxes required, you will deduct a $— deposit for a start as you required, with an additional extra $— is there for you as a tip for helping me handle everything perfectly for us please, and you will send $— to the project consultant that has the text content and the logo for my website so once he receives his payment…”
I didn’t need to read any further. I heaved a sigh, hit reply, typed “Don’t write to me again,” and tried to move on with my day.
There was of course no enormous loss as I didn’t send them any money (and I can’t help but feel sorry for anyone who would fall prey to such a scheme!). But it was indeed a waste of my time and energy – and as any entrepreneur knows, our time and energy IS money.
I’ve always thought of myself as being too smart and having too good instincts to ever fall for one of these things (don’t we all?). But here I was, staring it in the face. So being the problem solver that I am, I quickly shifted into trying to figure out what practices to put in place so this hopefully never happens again. The one detail about my interaction with this “person” that separated them from all the other authentic, legitimate clients I’ve had is that they didn’t take me up on a phone call or Zoom meeting to get acquainted. So there it was. No more completing a proposal for someone unless I’ve met them face to face.
Has anything like this ever happened to you? And if so, what practices did you put in place to ensure that (hopefully) history wouldn’t repeat itself? Please share with us in the comments below👇
Don’t ever lose your trust and faith in people. But also, be careful, be mindful, and above all, listen to your instincts when they’re talking to you. Because most of the time, they’re right.
This is so valuable a story and thank you for sharing it. It has happened to all of us (also, think dating websites). You did everything right and learned a new protection to implement for yourself. Onward and upward!
Thank you so much for these kind words Siri!