Hello,

About me, am MR.Perry Kay and i work as a Freelance Contractor. It is a good thing you replied to my ad because i need the apartment painted as soon as it can prior my coming back home. You do not have enough tools? Never mind, all necessary and optional working tools will be available for you to work with. So tools should not be a problem or cause any delay.
About the Apartment, it has 2 Bedrooms with a Bathroom each and a Kitchen.


In the meantime, I'm willing to pay a sum of $550 for the painting of the new Apartment, still negotiable though but i think that should do for a 2 Bedroom Apartment. I think the painting should not take long, maybe a day or two. My new Landlord will have to schedule a date and time with you to come do your paintings as you will be going to the new apartment together, he has the keys with him.
This arrangements should be ready as soon as he is notified that i have made payments for your Painting service.

As earlier stated, i want the paintings done prior to my coming back, am attending a Business Conference Meeting somewhere outside the states. Meanwhile, I will have payments arrangement made via my financing body and i will need you to do me a little favor. My Landlord will not schedule a date for the painting unless he has confirmed that i have actually made the payments. He also expects the rent fee as i am just moving in so in order to work there, I will have my paycheck issued to you,it will be an over draft paycheck. I will have my financing body issue the payment to you in your name as I am not able to do anything within the state at the moment and i want it done asap.

When you receive the payment, you are to deduct the cost of your service, the remaining funds should be wired to my new Landlord for the rental fee so all arrangements can be made ontime. I hope you understand this and we should not have any delay in progressing.

Meanwhile, i will need you to get back to me with the details below so the payment can be issued as soon as it can.

Full Name (to be written on check):
Address(must be a street address and not a p.o.box)
City:
State:
Zipcode:
Phone# (Home):
Phone# (Cell):
Age:

I will appreciate it if you can return to me with those info so we can proceed to work.


Mr.Perry Kay

We've probably all heard of those Internet scams to people with online ads for merchandise. Well we just got out first one for painting. It was for painting the interior of a home supposedly in Augusta.

The email came from someone with an African name that was supposedly in London who wanted this interior in Augusta completely painted. The square footage that was given did not add up - three 500 sq. ft. bedrooms in a 2200 sq. ft. house?

The written English and spelling was poor. In addition they needed the work done by the end of March and it was already April 2nd. Did they just paste this from previously sent emails and forget to update it?

I wrote back and informed them that it just so happened that I would be in the Augusta area the next day. I asked if it would be possible to see the project? They wrote back and said that unfortunately the person that was supposed to show me the house was sick with a fever and was in the process of getting treatment in California. ;-)

I wrote back and let them know that it was our policy never to submit a proposal for a project that we could not see first hand. There are too many variables such as how much furniture and obstacles that had to be moved. How much cleaning needed to be done before we could paint, as well as access problems, holes, cracks, caulking and other repairs that must be made before painting, or other potential prep or surface problems.

They never again responded. After some time passed I sent a P.S. that said; "Actually seeing the property also helps us to foil scams as well. ;-)"

For those of you that wonder how this could be a scam, you should know that there are several variations. One of the most popular is to send you a money order or check that is sent to you via next day delivery. The amount will come from some third party and it will be for much more than the proposed amount. They will let you know this and simply ask you to send them the difference which they will have picked up by a carrier. The scam is that their check or money order is no good, but before your bank can let you know that the check or money order was returned NSF, the scam artist will have cashed your check. I hope this helps to prevent this from happening to someone else.

Stan Hallett

Maine Painting LLC
P.O. Box 356
Buxton, Maine 04093

(207) 730-0719
stan@mainepainting.com