Email Scam Targets Home Stagers
Debra Gould
February 10, 2010
In case you were still wondering how many people have heard of home staging, here´s further proof that this is a well established field. It seems the scam artists are starting to crawl out from under their rocks to see if they can con home stagers into sending them money!
This is a twist on the "send money to a foreign country to rescue a dying relative" or "assist a diplomat who needs help getting millions out of the country and you´ll be rewarded" — this time with a script rewritten for home stagers and decorators or interior designers who might do work for home owners who are living abroad.
In this scam the interior designer or home stager is contacted by an out-of-country "homeowner" by email. The sender leads you on about a project and tries to build a rapport all in the hopes of tricking you into handing over your money.
In the specific case I´ve heard about, the stager said the man was very vague around details of the home. He wouldn´t answer the stager´s questions. Instead, he seemed focused on whether or not she had credit card processing abilities. Even though the stager didn´t provide an estimate for staging fees (because she didn´t have enough information from the "client"), he told her that she was to charge $16,000 to his credit card, keeping $8,000 for herself and sending $8,000 to his "artist."
Thankfully, this home stager didn´t fall into the trap of being blinded by the promised $8,000 fee, and when she questioned this arrangement she never heard from the man again.
Look out for schemes like this because unfortunately, some of people are just too trusting and they will do something like this, trying to help someone out. Otherwise, email scams would not still be so very prevalent.
If you found the article useful, you can find tons more just like it at Debra Gould´s business blog the Home Staging Business Report. Updated regularly several times per week, it contains lots of advice, inspiration and motivation for you to apply to your home staging business whether you´re just starting out, or are an established pro.
This is a twist on the "send money to a foreign country to rescue a dying relative" or "assist a diplomat who needs help getting millions out of the country and you´ll be rewarded" — this time with a script rewritten for home stagers and decorators or interior designers who might do work for home owners who are living abroad.
In this scam the interior designer or home stager is contacted by an out-of-country "homeowner" by email. The sender leads you on about a project and tries to build a rapport all in the hopes of tricking you into handing over your money.
In the specific case I´ve heard about, the stager said the man was very vague around details of the home. He wouldn´t answer the stager´s questions. Instead, he seemed focused on whether or not she had credit card processing abilities. Even though the stager didn´t provide an estimate for staging fees (because she didn´t have enough information from the "client"), he told her that she was to charge $16,000 to his credit card, keeping $8,000 for herself and sending $8,000 to his "artist."
Thankfully, this home stager didn´t fall into the trap of being blinded by the promised $8,000 fee, and when she questioned this arrangement she never heard from the man again.
Look out for schemes like this because unfortunately, some of people are just too trusting and they will do something like this, trying to help someone out. Otherwise, email scams would not still be so very prevalent.
If you found the article useful, you can find tons more just like it at Debra Gould´s business blog the Home Staging Business Report. Updated regularly several times per week, it contains lots of advice, inspiration and motivation for you to apply to your home staging business whether you´re just starting out, or are an established pro.
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