Victim Location 83705
Type of a scam Business Email Compromise
I am the owner of a landscape company and I was initially contacted through our website by email by Mario Hope who claimed he was in the hospital for a hearing impaired surgery (which is why he couldn’t talk on the phone or meet to discuss the project). He wanted landscaping done at his vacant house and needed to pay by credit card but could not use Square or Paypal. I use Square and told him I was not interested in signing up for another way to collect CC payments. He then asked me to look at his landscape plans and sent them to me via Docusign. When I went to download the document (stupid mistake on my part, I know), my anti-virus identified it as "phishing" and wouldn’t open it. After I sent a response to Mario saying I would not open his document and asked if he could he send it another way, I never heard back from him. A month later (today) I received a text from Rossi explaining he is recuperating from lung cancer and is still in the hospital and asked if I could give him an estimate on some landscaping he needs at his vacant house. Stay safe, fellow landscape owners!