Bryan resident claims he was scammed over the Easter weekend
BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – A Bryan resident tried to order an inflatable bounce house off a Facebook page.
After putting a deposit down, he realized the inflatable was never coming.
Patrick Linne says he ordered an inflatable bounce house through a Facebook page for an Easter party, where he communicated with the page on messenger, and sent them a down payment through Zelle.
“The day of, all of a sudden, they were double booked and they were going to need the whole payment in full otherwise they weren’t going to show up. At that point, I’d realize ‘Okay, I’ve been scammed,’” said Linne.
Patrick then messaged them about his feeling of uncertainty about the situation.
“After I asked for my deposit back and realized it was a scam, they blocked me and so what was interesting was that I went into the search bar when I searched them, I guess it pings anything with their name in some way, and I found another post from another Facebook user on the other end of it,” said Linne.
Linne said that he saw other people posted about the scam as well.
Katie Galan, the Director of Education and Community Relations with the Better Business Bureau, says scams like this are common.
“When we’re looking at something like Facebook Marketplace, a lot of times you have people who don’t have legit businesses set up, they don’t have the appropriate documentation to be an established business. Some people are okay dealing with that, but here’s the problem: you kind of run into issues where they don’t have an official website, they don’t have official contact information, and so on,” said Galan.
Galan says the best way to avoid getting scammed is to do your research.
The Better Business Bureau says some practical ways to avoid scams are googling the company’s page in your search engine, checking to see if they have a valid email, verifying their phone number to make sure a real person answers on the other end, visiting the product in person before sending a down payment, and avoid making a payment through online platforms.
The Better Business Bureau says you can also verify the business through their website.
“I think the big things would be is if there’s not contact information, if there’s not a phone number, you definitely don’t want to just keep it online, you want to be able to speak to somebody, you want to see the thing in person before you actually pay,” said Galan. “If they’re asking you to pay a deposit, if you have a credit card, use your credit card. That really is the number one way, the safest way to pay because that’s going to give you a layer of protection with your credit card company. Your last option should be those electronic wallet apps like Cash App, Venmo, Zelle because that’s basically paying with cash and once it’s gone, it’s gone.”
College Station Police Department says if you find yourself in this situation, file a report with local law enforcement.
“We ask anybody who’s getting scammed to come in and make that report with us or with whatever jurisdiction you’re in so that way we can find out about it so nobody else gets scammed,” said Offer Simmons, College Station Police Department Public Information Officer.
