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Warning - Stagers - Do Not Open Email from Kincaid Furniture & etc

By Kathleen Lordbock

Real Estate Agent with Keller Williams Realty Professionals MN Broker #40288835

October 23, 2008 04:51 AM

A few days ago I was contacted by e-mail for a job with Kincaid Furniture as a Regional Manager for my area. Sounded interesting and I responded asking for more information. They got right back to me and the job was part time from home- taking checks from their customers, keeping accounts and then sending them the orders, etc.

At $2000 /month base pay and 10% of all sales it sounded good - too good, something was not right. I Googled Kincaid and my area and sure enough they had furniture in 6 stores - all reputable.

The e-mail was from a Kincaid store in North Carolina with a contact name and address. I Googled the address and got an email for a different name and forwarded what I had received so far, asking if this was from them>the email was admin@kincaidfurntures.net The legitimate store in North Carolina was kincaidfurniture.com. Close but no cigar.

Their response was scam, not from them. OK, well that ends that. Today I get a check Special Delivery UPS for $2850.00 from a company in Florida drawn on a bank in Florida. Made out to me -wow. These people are serious and they know where I live.

Is it laundering drug money?

Some kind of an elaborate scheme to get into my accounts?

If they just wanted to get into my computer - why send money?

We will be meeting with the Sheriff today and have already talked to our Credit Union.

Update: Our Sheriff's Department is investigating this. They feel that the company is based overseas. If someone cashes the check, they are then probably told to send a check to the company and then keep the rest as payment. The original check will bounce and the new employee will be struck for the check sent to the company. There is no control over companies not based in the US doing these scams. Next week "they" will be Ashley Furniture or Ralph Lauren or Cort.

The true Kincaid Furniture has been cooperative in this and I hope that their good reputation will be maintained.

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B Lucas-Thrower

Staging - Interior Redesign & Home Staging - Franklin, TN

Interior Redesign and Home Staging

thanks...all should take notice of this.

Oct 23, 2008 04:55 AM

Rebecca Schrader

Competitive Insurance of Dundee - Dundee, FL

Kathleen,

Wow, good thing you knew it was too good to be true...there was a woman on the news with a very similar situation...she was so upset b/c she said "I always believed I was a savvy business woman, they outsmarted even me!" she fell for it and paid the price...then what follows is hell trying to get your money back...keep us poste on how it all pans out...Have a wonderful weekend.

Oct 23, 2008 04:57 AM

Angelia Garcia

Pure Realtors - Dallas, TX

These crooks need to get a life. If they have time to come up with these schemes they have time to go get a real job.

Oct 23, 2008 04:57 AM

Lewis Beynon

CENTURY 21 Triangle Group - Raleigh, NC

Lew B Realty

Thanks for the blog......I used to work at a local Credit Union (600 million in assets) and we fought this type of Phishing and Scam everyday. You cannot be too careful. The other day my son (17) got a call from the Transaction Review Dept at Credit Card Services. The message said call us back at 1-800______________. I told him to never call these numbers, BUT DO CALL the number on the back of your card or call your financial institution directly. It turned out ot be legit, but you never know!!!

Oct 23, 2008 05:01 AM

Lenn Harley

Lenn Harley, Homefinders.com, MD & VA Homes and Real Estate - Leesburg, VA

Real Estate Broker - Virginia & Maryland

Interesting. I have a lot of furintue in my house from Kincaid Furniture. They are also in Ashburn VA.

The scam is to obvious, it's hard to believe that anyone would fall for it. But, I suppose these scams must work or they wouldn't flourish.

Oct 23, 2008 05:14 AM

Michelle Molinari

FEATURE THIS... Real Estate Staging & Interior Decor - Lafayette, LA

Feature This Real, Estate Staging & Curb Appeal Concepts

Yep...when I worked at a Benjamin Moore store, people would call from Africa, stating they were a pastor at a remote village church & needed paint, saying paint was scarce in Africa.

They'd want 100 gallons or so or of premium" white" paint, shipped to Africa ASAP, and they'd pay by credit card in advance.

Had we gone thru with the transaction (we received calls about once a month like that) by the time the paint was in route, the credit card company would discover that despite the approval code, there was a problem with the account, and no sale could go thru. The receiver would take possession of $4000 of paint under a fake name and make off with $4000 worth of paint, with nothing anyone could do about it. And, you'd be stuck with the shipping, which was astronomical!

The thing was, if you didn't know any better, you'd think you were helping a church, maybe going so far as to cut them a deal to balance out the shipping costs, you know. Then you'd get taken to the cleaners for being nice!

They'd call with that TDD system for the deaf (so you'd think, wow, a dedicated deaf pastor in Africa... how can I say NO?), which, by the way, TDD calls are untraceable!).

I took, like, 5 of these calls personally, and called the FBI to report them as they were received. Only ONCE did the TDD operator go against protocol, and tell me, "Ma'am, the phone number the caller gave you and the one he is calling from are two different numbers. Do you understand what I am saying?"

So the operators KNOW what is going on, but they can't judge the TDD user and inform the person who is potentially getting JACKED, because it is a service for the handicapped, and that would be discrimination.

It is so ingeniously convoluted! And you can't just not take a TDD call, what if you actually had a deaf customer? One of our employees had a deaf wife, so we always took the call, and then reported them.

So glad YOU caught the scam in time and called the authorities... and alerted US!

Thanks,

~Michelle

Oct 23, 2008 05:19 AM

Kathy Passarette

Creative Home Expressions - Mount Sinai, NY

L.I. Staging/Decorating

Kathleen ~ Thanks for the warning! I wonder where they are getting the e-mail addresses from to know to send a furniture scam.

Oct 23, 2008 08:41 AM

Michele Hess

Simply Staged Inc. - Rockford, IL

Home Stager Rockford - Simply Staged Inc

Thanks for the "heads up" Kathleen. They did not know who they were dealing with - glad you didn't fall for it.

Oct 23, 2008 09:02 AM

Patricia Ebrahimi

SHOW SMART! HOME STAGING & Color Consultant - Rockville, MD

Home Staging the Washington DC Area from Rockville MD

Wow, Kathleen! That's too weird what goes on out there. Makes me gunshy about almost everything online. SO glad YOU were not scammed out of any money in the process. Good job.

Oct 23, 2008 10:31 AM

Kimberley Hawley

Hawley Interiors & Staging - Caledon, ON

Hawley Interiors & Staging

OMG, that's terrible. Lucky you were smart enough to do some research. I'm sure there are some people out ther, especially in this economic climate, who are desperate and very easily fall into this scam.

Oct 23, 2008 10:56 AM

Abby Roselli

ALR Home Staging and Showcasing, LLC - Staten Island, NY

Staten Island Home Stager

I have things for sale on CraigsList and was approached by a woman who is out of the country and who was willing to pay for the big screen TV we have listed PLUS $250.00 to have it shipped to someone else who is also out of the country...she'd pay us via paypal. Well, we stated local pick up only because we didn't want to be bothered shipping it anywhere but my husband smelled a rat and said it sounded like someone scheming to get account information and to tell them forget it. You have to be so careful!

Oct 23, 2008 11:28 AM

Kathi Presutti

RE:STYLE LLC - Brighton, MI

Re:Style, LLC

Thanks for alerting us to this! I am often too trusting. I hate knowing that we have to question everything, but it's the wise course of action.

Oct 23, 2008 11:37 AM

Ginger Foust

Certified Staging Professional - Oakhurst, CA

Home Stager Oakhurst CA, Dream Interior Redesign & Staging

It seems that these days there's a scam around every corner for every imaginable opportunity. Thanks so much Kathleen for the heads-up. We just had a similar one for renting our condo in Hawaii...that would have been a BIG ouch! Thankfully we listened to our talking gut and didn't follow through, whew!

Oct 23, 2008 11:55 AM

Kristina Leone

Lionheart Home Staging, LLC - Minneapolis, MN

Thank you for the warning! It is a good thing that you followed your instincts on this one!

Oct 23, 2008 12:29 PM

Maureen Bray Portland OR Home Stager ~ Room Solutions Staging

Room Solutions Staging, Portland OR - Portland, OR

"Staging Consultations that Sell Portland Homes"

Go get 'em Kathleen -- those scoundrels!! How dare they try to scam you!! I hope they're caught red-handed, and given what they deserve. Keep us posted.

Oct 27, 2008 02:50 PM

Terrylynn Fisher

Dudum Real Estate Group - BuyStageSell.com - Walnut Creek, CA

HAFA Certified, EcoBroker, CRS, CSP Realtor, Etc.

Wow thanks for paying attention to the details and scoping this out for us.

Oct 27, 2008 05:30 PM