Form of flattery?

[Jehinten]

I am going to post this on here since I know there are a couple of guys on here from my area in hopes of getting the word out. I just received a call today from a local sheriff office regarding a couple who are bidding tree work and collecting half of the money up front without going back and doing any work. This company is not claiming any affiliation with my company, however I was contacted because they are using our first names. My wife's name is fairly unique and it is an odd enough coincidence that the sheriffs department was able to pull my name out of about 40 local tree services to call and see if I might know who these people are. Unfortunately I was unable to help. For you locals, the name they are using (although doubtful that it is an actual name) is Justin and Laurel Gilehand with Next generation tree service. The descriptions were vague, male was about 5'8' with dark hair and the female had tattoos on her thigh and neck. They were reported as driving a dark Chrysler 300.

As a follow up question, have any of you had something similar? I know images and logos have been stolen in the past, should this be something that concerns me, and should I attempt to do anything about it? I know that we are not the only ones with those first names, and that this could just be a coincidence, but potential customers could research this couple after being scammed and find our names associated with our company and confuse us with the scammers.

Thanks for any advice,
Justin

 

[oldoakman]

Sounds like the crack heads I have to deal with around here. Best of luck in dealing with this menace. I would do everything I could to protect my business re images and logos etc. Enlist a good business consultant for help local to your area and state.

 

[southsoundtree]

Post up on any social media you can. Facebook, nextdoor, etc, along with details of who to contact at the sherriffs office.

This will help spread the word and help hold up your name.

Maybe a local news piece, if they have some sort of help the community spot, meaning ScamBusters or something.

Worst thing that effort will be is a waste of time and minimal money. I'd bet you're gain work out of it, just by you name getting around.

People talk. I was just in a restaurant and saw some customers. I was with a friend and kid having dinner. I told them all their trees are thirsty--I'd driven past their house and seen flagging branches. They mentioned they'd just heard about drought-stressed trees on the news. I told them that my friend was the one on the news program talking about drought-stress, and pointed behind them. Weird connections.

I tell people about the Red Dryer Vent inspection teams that are some kinda moving scam, routinely.

 

[rico]

Sounds like it’s time to go vigilante on someone’s ass.

 

[Jehinten]

Sounds like the crack heads I have to deal with around here. Best of luck in dealing with this menace. I would do everything I could to protect my business re images and logos etc. Enlist a good business consultant for help local to your area and state.

Just curious how do you go about protecting a logo? I recently paid to have one drawn up and the image is not very public yet as I have thought of printing it on shirts but have not done so yet. As of now it is only on my bid sheets. Is the record of paying for the design enough to protect it, or should I do something else as well?

 

[Jehinten]

Post up on any social media you can. Facebook, nextdoor, etc, along with details of who to contact at the sherriffs office.

This will help spread the word and help hold up your name.

Maybe a local news piece, if they have some sort of help the community spot, meaning ScamBusters or something.

Worst thing that effort will be is a waste of time and minimal money. I'd bet you're gain work out of it, just by you name getting around.

People talk. I was just in a restaurant and saw some customers. I was with a friend and kid having dinner. I told them all their trees are thirsty--I'd driven past their house and seen flagging branches. They mentioned they'd just heard about drought-stressed trees on the news. I told them that my friend was the one on the news program talking about drought-stress, and pointed behind them. Weird connections.

I tell people about the Red Dryer Vent inspection teams that are some kinda moving scam, routinely.

My wife handles all of the social media for our business and has already made a post on FB regarding it. Its a good idea as we get a lot of leads through FB, so people outside of our immediate circle see our page as well. I am not sure if our local news has anything like that or not, I do not watch TV so I do not know what our news station has or doesn't have. Good ideas though, thanks

 

[kiteflyingeek]

Thanks for the info. I haven't heard of these scammers yet. I'll be a bit more watchful.

--andrew