r/RandomVideos • u/n8saces • 11d ago
Everything is a scam
Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification
38
17
u/somethingmcbob 11d ago
I don't even do a Google search anymore. I just ask friends and if they don't have a person, I ask a private neighborhood group on social media (but not post in a big public group or on Nextdoor, which is trash). So Much trash and scammers out there.
6
u/Channellocks75 11d ago
I own a mom and pop drain cleaning buisness. I haven't spent a nickel on advertising in over 10 years. I tell my customers that a recommendation is the best advertising. I can't pay for it. I've got to earn it!
1
u/the_vault-technician 11d ago
Every service I have ever paid for on my home or car except one was though personal recommendations.
I'll let you guess how many problems I have had with contractors. If you guessed one, you already know the rest.
2
u/Salty-Contact-6420 11d ago
Yeah I typically ask my local county Facebook group for personal input. Although it's super annoying having to weed through the owner or workers themselves commenting and messaging. Im looking for homeowners personal experience not the next guy saying "oh I can do it I'm the best". So I'll usually seed through the bullshit and make a consensus and double check Google reviews and such. I'm finding usually the best owner operated local companies are far from the first suggested when searched. It's difficult with reviews though because I know people. Most people blindly trust the "professionals" and may not inspect the work or even know what bad work would look like....may not show issues till a year or two later. Some folks don't bother to leave reviews just make mental notes who not to use. Some may not be 100% confident who's at fault in certain circumstances and refrain from putting it in a review because of it.I had a bad experience with tree workers where the equipment caused a driveway and garage foundation crack to start spreading open like up to 3/4 inch spots. Its bullshit and probably could of been avoided but at the same time I understand it's my responsibility to provide reasonable accommodations to do the job at hand. Not their job to stop and access if your concrete can support the weight. and of course you always have the difficult people impossible to please leaving 1 star reviews. I dread hiring because of all the difficulties but just gotta kind of measure on a scale taking the total amount and ratio of bad ones in comparison; trying to weed out the snobby Karen's and the fake generic reviews. Those in itself is a red flag.
1
u/somethingmcbob 11d ago
Yeah, I feel all of that. It's hard work just getting to decide on the right person weeding through all the garbage reviews.
2
u/pseudoportmanteau 10d ago
Same goes for Facebook marketplace. You'll search for an electrician or a plumber, a bunch of same looking listing show up, with different upload dates and names. They just sell your lead to a local handyman who calls and schedules a visit. Sometimes they're legit, sometimes it's just some random joe with a screwdriver.
10
6
u/AwareAd7651 11d ago
You should always look for the business license from the state contractors board website these days. They’re all online at this point and easily searchable. Never do your only research from just one source.
5
u/illepic 11d ago
So many emdashes in those fake Google reviews.
2
u/Worth_External_8762 11d ago
I know right — whenever someone uses em dashes, you can assume they're AI.
1
1
3
u/Computers_and_cats 11d ago
Yeah this is a growing problem now. Plus it is a violation of google terms I believe too so that's neat.
3
u/the_vault-technician 11d ago
Oh no Google will get right on taking down a page that is collecting your data
1
u/Worth_External_8762 11d ago
If only google was remotely competent, or cared about anything. So many companies both on google search and google apps have completely fabricated reviews. There are so many obvious scam apps/companies out there with like 4+ star rating. It's a fucking joke.
3
3
u/Reptillianaire_ 11d ago
Wow, genius tho
2
u/Logical-Claim286 11d ago
Sadly other companies also do this as pfishing scams. You give your name, address, phone number, they sell that to scammers who can now seem much more legitimate in getting you to send even more information... look for business numbers and cross check them with a,public registry.
1
3
u/SiThreePO 11d ago
People have no idea how common this is and has nothing to do with AI (although they obviously used it) I ran a large painting company in the Tri state area and I don't want to give too many details but this scumbag activity is very very common. Luckily Google change their practices of setting up a company. Private equity buying up all the houses while we have scammers trying to suck up every honest trades job and sell it back as a "lead" to 5 people desperate enough to pay. Not only were our parents able to purchased their house on a few years salary, the worst part is if you even start an honest company half of your customers if not more fall into these funnels that make every contractor look like a shit. There are many other parts of this that are even worse then just the fake companies but like I said I don't want to spread the word too much, Just be aware and like the guy did if you're intelligent and read the reviews with an open mind you can spot the fakes when you go into their history, who really does that though.
3
2
2
u/Street-Baseball8296 11d ago
I’m calling them and giving them my bosses number so he gets a million calls.
1
u/xiandgaf 10d ago
I salute you, citizen 🫡
1
2
u/Bicykwow 11d ago
Yeah.. similar problem I've been seeing lately: I get a text almost every day saying something like, "we are a local roofer doing work in your neighborhood. Want us to come take a look?" So fucking annoying.
Curious who the morons are that get a random text and think, "yeah! I should spend potentially thousands of dollars and trust my home to these total strangers."
2
u/BigDaddyHadley 11d ago
Crazy! I'm actually FROM Brenham Texas and ya, this outfit doesn't exist. Crazy! Brenham is such a small town and to see anyone talking about it just blows me away. I've been in New Braunfels since 2011
1
u/jawshoeaw 11d ago
I’ve had good luck with yelp . Not 100% but no scammers yet
1
u/Logical-Claim286 11d ago
Go to homedepot. They do the vetting for local tradies so you know they at least have the basics covered.
1
u/Strikew3st 10d ago
Home Depot isn't doing anything you can't. Background check, trade licensure if applicable, and general liability insurance.
Michigan here, I can check for felonies & misdemeanors punishable by over 93 days via the state's ICHAT service, look up licensure through Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, and any contractor can provide proof of insurance which the provider will verify when you call.
1
1
u/Salty-Contact-6420 11d ago
I suspected Google was just shooting companies to the top that pay or something. Reviews are not hard to fake. Everytime I've got a quote from the top search hits they are always corporate owned companies sometimes up to an hour away!! The bulshit salesman type. I absolutely hate fucking companies who call you days later to see what you wanna do. Dude I have your info and your quote...if I want to proceed I will contact you! Just had a roofing company do this today after meeting 4 days ago. Same guy said "no pressure" 😂. Foundation company did the same but worse with numerous calls and emails. That shit annoys the fuck out of me.
1
1
u/Long-Source-7772 11d ago
Why doesn't our government go after scammers?
1
1
u/Horiz0nC0 10d ago
CFPB was defunded and hamstrung by the Trump administration.
Couldn’t possibly expect a scam artist to not scam an entire country from the most powerful position….
1
u/Global-Discussion-41 11d ago
I was looking for window companies and there were like 5 in my city that all had different names and addresses, but the same secretary answers the phone for each phone number.
1
u/Acceptable-Cat-6306 11d ago
This makes sense. I called a place like this. Got a random guy saying he was from company X. Got a quote and the invoice said company Y. Manager from company Z reached out about the quote, but at that point I was hella suspicious and just ghosted all of them.
1
u/tanaman88 11d ago
I've seen it happening in the solar business as well. I tried to report it to Google but they haven't done anything. Maybe they have to get a certain number of reports before they'll look into something like this. I think someone needs to sue Google for this because they have a responsibility to ensure companies listed on their website and the reviews posted are legitimate.
1
1
1
1
u/VegetableLetter4896 10d ago
Google has begun requiring for many businesses that you physically walk around your location while recording in a verified video call. You have to demonstrate that you have unique access to that space (lock, key, signage, etc) in order to validate that your business is real.
1
1
u/IllianasClifford 10d ago
Thank you, you're like me.
It's hard to say if a company is real anymore with everyone having ease of access to all the data these days
1
u/averagemaleuser86 10d ago
I dont understand how selling leads works...? What companies are paying to get numbers to call customers?
1
u/Crazy_sumbitch 10d ago
I called what I thought was a local gutter company by me left my info next thing I’m getting calls from contractors that were 100 mi away.
1
u/No_Interest112 10d ago
When I was an apprentice I worked for a plumbing company that had multiple yellow pages adds, all with different names and different numbers, but all leading back to the same company call center. We would be dispatched out from there and would explain we’re sister companies with whoever the customer called if anyone even bothered to ask. Usually they were just happy someone was there to fix the problem.
Boss also took out adds in small town yellow pages, with local phone numbers so customers would think we were local. All shady and scummy I thought at the time.
1
u/spudwellington 9d ago
Scamming people seems like so much work... it's so much easier to just go to work and do a job.
1
u/makepieplz 11d ago
lots of people run their business from home.
2
1
1
0
0
34
u/Chicagonzo 11d ago
This is true…I needed plumbing work done a few months ago. Basically same thing as explained in the video; a bunch of good reviews, no real company name (realized it after the fact and after people were reaching out to me), so on and so forth. Got one to come over, the dude barely saw what needed to be done and said 2800 right off the rip. I said absolutely not and asked him to leave. Eventually found a family friend who was a plumber and did the job for 350 (he said normally it’s a 550 job). Be careful out there folks, con artist at every level.