Scams Found on Facebook that Impact Cleaners and How to Spot Them

Put yourself in the shoes of John. John's not his real name. I changed it. But you're an immigrant. You've saved up money to leave your country. Your paperwork is in order. You want to start a new life here in the United States. You want to participate and contribute in the American spirit. You're entrepreneurial minded and figured the easiest ways to overcome the barriers of entry is to start a cleaning business. You did your homework. Your family is helping you and you're ready to start.

To assist in your cleaning journey you join different Facebook cleaning groups. You get active. You ask great questions. And then you get a direct message. It goes something like, "I can help you win more contracts. Would you like to learn how?" Wanting to know the secrets you respond back with an enthusiastic "yes". You are told that a company will help you find new contracts and win more business, but all you have to do is pay $1,800 to get started. With full trust and faith, you do it. You pay this other Facebook member $1800 and you can almost taste the victory of more business. Except...

....it never happened. 

You've been scammed out of your hard earned money. Your faith in people waned. Your trust diminished. And you're even questioning whether or not a cleaning business was the right move. 

While his name is changed, John is a real person. I've been openly calling out scammers online for a few years now and John reached out on confidentiality to share his story about a year ago. It's a heartbreaker. The purpose of this post is to highlight some of these Facebook-based scams, how to identify them, and what you can do to protect yourself going forward. 

Scams have evolved over time. We can go back to the snake oil salesmen of 100+ years ago, or Victor Lustig's Rumanian Box that can reproduce any note denomination, or even back to 300 BC and see the first recorded instance of insurance fraud, thanks to Hegestratos. In the evolution to the digital age, many of us recall the emails from that Nigerian prince or a deposed relative of that certain African nation that went through another coup d'etat. One of my favorite sites that always deserved a good laugh was 419Eater and scam baiting. In a more modern reference, YouTuber ScammerPayback is targeting scammers and saving victims countless money. 

Here are some scams on Facebook you should be on the lookout for if you're a FB user:

Copyright Infringement

It goes something like this, "Your Facebook page has been blocked for a copyright infringement", or "Violations detected on your Facebook page". What's the scam? Usually they include links that direct you to a different page and that leads to phishing, which is their attempt to steal your sensitive information. 

The above screenshot is from Liquid Creative. They were my go-to after my wife's account got hacked. Whether the scammer claims we are in some sort of violation or the scammer provides links that look real, it's easy to click on something we shouldn't have and a simple log-in attempt can give the scammers what they need to clone or even take over your FB accounts. 


Art-focused Posters

One of the earliest instances of scammers I found came from these "artists" who offer to do logos. They'll post similar to below:

Or, they'll post a simple 4-example profile of some of their "artwork". Tangent: their art is 100% crappy looking. Even if a poster, offering this canned artwork isn't a scammer, you're getting scammed on the quality. It's terrible!! That as an aside, I did talk to a poster who saw one of these posts. She was asked to provide $30. That money disappeared and she never got her artwork. 

Grant and Loan Offers

Everyone is looking for free money. When COVID hit, I kept seeing EIDL posts (Economic Injury Disaster Loan). EIDL loans served as a grant and were very much legit. But what wasn't legit was that these EIDL (and later PPP) posts kept coming in long after the program ended. It was clear it was a scam but these posters posted again and again touting money for everyone with "no payback needed". People fell for these scams unfortunately. 

It's interesting that even in 2024, years after the programs concluded, it's still being touted. The below is a screenshot I found just today dating back to last month (September 2024).  BTW, their red markup was theirs and you can see the loan edit, as it was originally a copy and paste probably from some other source or scammer. 

In another example, some scammers in these FB cleaning groups are posting offers for grant funding. These are scams. They're always asking you to reply through DM. I always find it curious they say the same thing, "Must have a LLC or EIN". One has nothing to do with the other. It's kinda like saying, "You must show up to class bringing a pen and some cheesy grits".

Now, I do want to be clear. There are some legit grants out there. Our local town gave out thousands to local business owners to help them during COVID. It wasn't a lot but every little bit counted for many. A major telecom was another example where they generously issued grants to business owners. But 999 out of 1000 times, any grant found on Facebook is a scam. 


Giveaways

I see these from time to time. A poster comes on. They post about a cheating husband or a kid with cancer or the loss of a loved one and they're offering a free PS4, or laptop, or whatever. What's the scam? Now they have you DMing privately and they'll ask for all sorts of information or even bank info to perpetuate the scam. Below is a great example of that:

Lead Sales

Leads are the foundation to your sales pipeline. Without leads, you don't have a business. But if a complete stranger comes on FB and offers you leads, in exchange for a DM, what are you really getting? 

I want to be clear: not all lead providers are scammers. However, many are. I talked to someone else who fell victim to one of these scams. They were instructed to provide $1500 in exchange for a certain number of leads. The victim paid that money and poof....money gone AND no leads. I tell people all the time: never pay for leads. Leads are free. I mean it. They truly are free. Check out the Finding Leads series within this blog. 

 Government Bidding

This one is always evolving. A poster comes along and asks a very simple question that has you thinking about government bidding. 

If you don't know the process, it's easy to get sucked in through a scammer. They will post that they're offering help. Some may be legit, but many aren't. Down below I'll describe what to look out for. Just know that bidding government, whether through SAM dot GOV or some other government entity, is ALWAYS free. It never cost money to bid on these projects. So if you're working with someone you met online and they're trying to say you have to pay to bid...not true. It's all free. Check out my government post if you're looking to clean for the feds, your state, or any local government. 

Cleaning Agents

Secret Cleaning Agent Man? I don't know how this scam works to be honest. Someone comes on FB offering you 4-8 new clients. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is, right?  What is a cleaning agent anyway?

Cleaning Jobs

There are some who perpetuate a scam by offering to hire others. Here's an example:

More often than not these scammers and scamming. Some groups have more posts than others, but this came from a commercial cleaning group on FB. The "R" likely denotes South Africa but there are plenty of scammers touting American jobs. What's the scam? Fill out paperwork so we can capture your personal info. Another scenario is where they charge you a finders fee of sorts for a job that might not even be real.

Here's another example in terms of subcontracting. Buyer beware.

Take My Check (and I'll accidentally overpay so you can wire the difference)

I'm sure there's an official term for this type of scam. It's so common. I'll make you an offer you likely won't refuse. I'll accidentally overpay you and you have to send the difference, and then my check bounces. So now I got your money and you don't have a client. These are all over and aren't ubiquitous to cleaning. My parents were selling an RV and they got an offer, talked to the seller, and the seller sent them a "certified" fake check that over paid for the RV. They didn't fall for it but the scammer wanted them to send the overpaid amount. The check looked real but it was fake. 

Below is a sample for cleaning:

There are so many other scams out there. For the sake of brevity, I'll stop here. Other notables include contractors scamming subs out of pay, people selling cleaning equipment online only to take the money and produce no supplies, fake invoice scams (ie labor law posters), promised advertising scams, and more. There are others some of you may lump as a scam, like online directories or review sites or even certain job bidding sites, but I'm reserving the word "scam" here because a questionable business practice isn't the same as a scam. 

________

Well, How Do We Spot Them?

1) If it sounds too good to be true it is. If you really want to eat that carrot, then at least post online in these cleaning groups. Others have probably received the EXACT same offer. 

2) Look for oddball names. Below are some examples...

Others...

Could these people really have that name? Yes, definitely. Do fake names indicate scams? No, not exclusively. But many of the scammers out there do have questionable names.

3) Look in their profile. it can reveal a lot of info for you. Look for where they are from. Look for a phone number (anything other than +1 is outside the US, for example +234 is known scammer locations namely Nigeria). Look for clues as to where they are from. Look for current employment. Look at their personal timeline. 

I'll update this blog with screenshots if I ever find them but I encountered a government opportunity scammer who went to college in the Pacific Northwest. Nothing glaring about that. She went to Harvard post grad. Ok, some cleaners were at Harvard (Goodwill Hunting). But she currently lives in the UK and she currently works at McDonalds. One of these data points alone isn't that glaring. All together, well, it's pretty clear.

4) Look for telltale signs of a potential scam. I give some great examples above. Look to see if what the poster or emailer is saying aligns with any of the above. When in doubt, ask others.

5) Within their profile, look at their friends. If a foreign scammer, they'll have foreign friends. Sometimes you can see patterns like a group of friends being in the same area or city and then look at any profile check-ins to see if those cities align. If so, that poster is from that area. If they're touting they are a local cleaning business owner here, you'll know they're probably lying. 

I hope this information helps. It's not easy avoiding these scams. They can sound convincing. I've been taken before on a bank phishing scam and within 10 minutes over $2000 was wiped out (and later recovered). I'm extremely careful and they got me. The sophistication is improving all the time. If you are a victim of a scam, definitely contact the police because that scammer might be targeting businesses local to you and the police have better resources. And when in doubt, ask for help from others. There's no rush to engage. It's worth stepping back, pressing pause for a few days, and re-engaging if you determine they're legit. 

Next on Deck: Scary Damage (coming 10-30-2024)