Know Who You’re Doing Business With
§ by Joel Hess on October 23rd, 2006
I recently received the following email notice from the Minnesota Woodworkers Guild. It illustrates the problems with buying online.
Wood SCAM
In the Nov/Dec Guild Newsletter there is an ad offering 400,000 bf of lumber. The advertisement leads with the line “Lake Elmo Lumber closes doors.” Sadly, it is true that Lake Elmo Hardwood Lumber has closed.
They have however informed us that they have nothing to do with this offer. Please don’t call them! It has also been brought to our attention that the offer maybe too good to be true. Be prudent, do not pay in advance. If advanced payment is required, arrange to use PayPal or some other 3rd party. Hopefully the offer is good.
Apparently, if you were interested in buying lumber from the person running this scam, the first requirement was that you pay money down before delivery. Predictably, the material is never delivered. I’m told several local businesses and some individuals did lose some money and the police are investigating the scam.
As the email notice states, if the offer sounds to good to be true, it probably is! Just be careful out there.