“My worst fear is innocent people getting money taken from them,” Eddie Haynes, owner of JEH Solar, said.
“She just said something didn’t seem right,” he added.
The alleged employee, though, asked for a down-payment of $10,000, which the business owner say they don’t typically do without meeting the customer first.
He says the contract this alleged employee sent had his company’s name, logo, and address.
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He’s now warning others about the scam.
Haynes says a customer reached out to him when they got a pretty shady sales pitch from one of his so-said employees.
“Yeah, there’s always gonna be somebody trying to get free money,” he said.
Haynes says he’s thankful the customer thought to give him a call, so he gave the scammer the same courtesy.
He never heard back, but he was luckily able to warn others before the scammer found themselves another target. He says scammers can be sneaky, but there’s still ways to spot them.
“If you ask them who to write a check to and they give a personal name, most businesses take it under their company name. So if you’re trying to do business with a company and you ask them who to make the check out to, and they say John Doe, that’s a red flag right there,” he said. “Try not to do anything over the phone or send it on Cash App. Always meet your sales person, especially with something as expensive as roof, solar, anything, actually anything, you want to meet who you’re doing business with,” Haynes said.
The business owner tells News Ten scammers can hurt your business to, if they pose as the company like this scammer did. He says that’s why businesses should also keep an eye out for anything shady.