Scammers are known to target specific businesses, and homeowners and business owners alike can fall victim to theft from time to time. Dale Henderson, the owner of Site Mix, a ready-mix concrete company based in Metro He, Atlanta, knows this all too well. He explains, “You get cheaper than the actual rate,” referring to scammers who use stolen credit cards.
After completing a concrete job, businesses like Site Mix may only discover that the payment was made with a stolen credit card more than a month later. The homeowner or business owner is then left with an outstanding concrete bill since they had already paid for it once. In one example, Site Mix was scammed out of over $4,000 worth of concrete. They found the same photo on multiple driver’s licenses with different names associated with multiple stolen credit cards.
Henderson advises homeowners and contractors to be cautious of prices that seem too high and to pay vendors directly themselves. These scams aren’t limited to Georgia but have also affected concrete companies in Alabama, Tennessee, and Florida, with Alabama currently under investigation. The suspected thief may have stolen over $200,000 in this scheme.
It’s important to stay vigilant and aware of these types of scams to avoid falling victim to them. Fraudulent activities can occur in any industry, so it’s wise to take steps to protect oneself and one’s business.