Well, generally I wouldn't post about the latest scams online, but it so happens that it involves tiny homes.
Apparently there is an individual posting on craigslist offering to build tiny homes for people for a rediculously low price (his total cost doesn't even cover the price of building materials), taking a large deposit (up to 75%) in cash, and then running off with the money and not delivering a tiny house (BIG surprise!).
It sickens me that there is someone out there taking advantage of the people who are trying to change their lives, possibly get into a self sufficient home and live debt free. I'm sure we all know how hard it is to save our money these days, and for someone to take advantage of the good natured people who are interested in the tiny house movement and swindle them out of their hard earned money just makes me want to scream!
If you happen to come across this person, please report them to the proper authorities as they need to be stopped before they ruin anymore lives and dreams.
From the emails I have received personally, there are at least 7 people who have been taken in by his scam and have no recourse as they paid in cash and any contact information they had for him appears to be false.
Please be careful out there!
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Yikes! Where did you learn about this internet scam, and the 7 people being taken? I'd like to mention this on tinyhousedesign.com too. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteWe were contacted by a family who follows our blog to do some consult work for them on their own tiny house build as they had lost several thousands of dollars to a man on craigslist who claimed to build tiny homes for people at a very low rate (complete homes 18+feet for less than 14k). After they put their $10,000 deposit down in cash as requested, they never heard from him again. Subsequently, after filing their police report they heard back from the person handling their case that there were 6 other open cases across the US with the same M.O.
ReplyDeleteThey no longer have the money to have someone else build it for them, so they are undertaking building their own (with a bit of creative and techinical help from our end).
I guess they had originally contacted the folks over at Tumbleweed and were told that they were too swamped to take any new orders and that their best bet was to find a contractor or someone local to build it for them......
They'll get their home eventually, but it's just terrible that they lost all that money and that someone is taking advantage of people in this fashion.