Has anyone else felt as if the business environment is more hostile than it once was? Let me explain...............
I own a chimney company and I was targeted multiple times by scammers. One scammer started pretending to be from our company so he could scam customers out of their hard-earned money using our good name and posting fake 1-star reviews on our social media pages. A few other scammers went after our company, using fake insurance claims. Another scammer stole my personal identity and, when that didn't work, tried to take out credit cards in my business name. Another scammer launched a fake lawsuit based solely on us completing her job late due to us finding a massive carpenter's ant nest in her wall. She found our untimely finish to the job to be extremely offensive and taxing! We even had Paycom doing our employee checks only to find out they never paid the taxes for said checks! On top of all that, we caught many employees stealing from our company and doing drugs. In the end, we fired all the employees, got security systems on every last thing we own, froze our credit reports, changed our company name, hired lawyers, etc. The end result?.........
1>The insurance company told us the insurance scammers were on their scam list and were known to be repeat offenders but they couldn't stop them! I asked why and they said, "Because, taking them to court costs small businesses like yours far more money in legal fees and the such than it does to simply pay them to shut up and go away!! If they were taken to court they may or may not stop their little game when they lose their case but you, the small business owner, will be out tons of money!"
2> The fake lawsuit lady got some money because our lawyer told us that scammers like that can sue for anything and get away with it. Some people that is simply how they live. From lawsuit to lawsuit instead of from paycheck to paycheck like us normal people! In other words, it is their career to find ridiculous reasons to sue people!! UGG!!
3>The guy who used our company name to scam innocent people got away with it because, according to the BBB, one business cannot launch a complaint against another business! The fake one-star reviews were removed but so was our Google account! The scammer had set up multiple Google accounts in our company name and, according to Google, we had too many accounts open so they closed the legitimate one despite us proving that was the real one!!!!!!!!!!!! We have never been capable of opening a new one, even under our new company name. Despite everything we have tried they refuse to cancel the fake accounts because we don't have the necessary information to access those accounts so we cannot cancel them because we aren't the legal owners of said accounts!! OMG!! That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard!! The scammer has all the rights and we have nothing!
4>Paycom refuses to get back to us about the tax situation and they haven't allowed us access to our files so we are now battling with the employment tax people but they refuse to budge. So where did Paycom go with the money they removed from the employee checks on our behalf?????????????? A question they refuse to answer and the government refuses to help get us answers to!
5>After my identity and the identity of my company were stolen the Maine State Police got the FEDS in on the investigation. After a few days, the FEDS told me they couldn't do anything as there was no evidence of a crime being committed despite the mountains of fake credit card, mortgage, and loan applications I had arrive in my name and/or company name! They also didn't take into account all the activity on my credit reports! So I was left to clean up that mess all by myself and the perpetrator is still on the loose!
6>The employee thefts were treated as a domestic situation by the local police where the business was registered. As a domestic dispute, it was considered not to be an actual crime!! We lost a good $200,000 in vandalism damages and theft damages, yet that wasn't a crime because the morons were hired by us!!!!!!!!!!! On top of that, when we fired the employees after finding out they were stealing and/or doing drugs, they would become enraged at us!! The employees would launch verbal, physical, and emotional attacks on me and my family because we fired them unjustly! According to them, they had the right to steal because they were poor and we rich people owed them money!!!!!!!!!!!! UMM??????? I'm not rich!! Again, the police said the threats were not on camera so they couldn't prosecute and it was considered a domestic dispute anyhow!!
In the end, we had to rebuild everything we worked so darned hard to build but we are still struggling to come up out of the ashes. We no longer trust anyone and refuse to ever hire an employee again. We are still fighting the Paycom issues with the employment office. We are still paying off loans we had to take out to fix the damages that all of this caused us. Our retirement money is all gone thanks to these things. The criminals who targeted our business are out running around terrorizing other small businesses freely. Can I ask why all the rights are on the side of the criminals and there are no rights for the small businesses?
Given the hostility of the business world of today, we small business owners have an uphill battle. The path to success is obstructed almost the entire way. Why is this? Shouldn't we, as a society, be building up and supporting small family businesses? Shouldn't we support each other as a community and not tear each other down? Has anyone else experienced these problems in their businesses or are we all alone here? Thanks so much, everyone.
First, I want to say how incredibly sorry I am that you’ve had to endure such a relentless series of challenges. No one deserves that level of stress, and it’s completely understandable to feel frustrated, betrayed, and disillusioned by the systems that are supposed to protect small business owners like you. Your perseverance in rebuilding everything despite all of this speaks volumes about your strength and resilience.
I've rarely had these issues. I run a dumpster rental business. Some calls us, orders a dumpster, we put it in their driveway, invoice immediately, and then pick the dumpster up when they say, "It's full." I thought when I bought this business, "what could go wrong!" However, someone once rented a dumpster from us, we delivered it, and they paid with a stolen credit card. Immediately Quickbooks (which we integrate into Jobber) flagged us that the credit card was stolen. Soon thereafter, someone called us to ask us why the number on our dumpster wasn't the one in our "for sale" ad. "What for sale ad?" we asked. Seems that the person who fraudulently rented the dumpster put up a for sale listing on Facebook Marketplace SELLING our dumpster! Had we not gotten alerted by the hopeful buyer, we would have lost a dumpster. Who steals dumpsters? Anyway, I just want you to know that, unfortunately you’re not alone—many small business owners have faced similar hardships, though maybe not all at once as you have. Scams, fraudulent lawsuits, employee theft, and identity theft have become more prevalent, and it often feels as if the law protects the wrong people. That said, there are steps other small businesses have taken to try to reduce their risk moving forward. You’ve already implemented some smart moves—like installing security systems and freezing your credit reports—so I want to share a few other ideas that might help:
Finally, you’re absolutely right—society should do more to support small businesses like yours. Small, family-run businesses are the backbone of our communities, and it’s incredibly disheartening when they’re the ones left unprotected. I hope sharing your experience helps others realize just how serious this issue is and encourages small business owners to band together for change.
Please know that your struggles matter, and your resilience hasn’t gone unnoticed. I hope better days are ahead for you and your company. If there’s any way this group can support you further, please don’t hesitate to ask. You’ve been through more than enough on your own.
Take care, and keep fighting the good fight!
David, you telling me your story is enough. Your story is so similar to some of the things we have gone through that it helps to make me feel a little less alone. One guy scamming us thought he had gotten away with it, and he almost did until a customer wanted a refund and had to call us because the scammer's number mysteriously didn't work anymore after the scammer had secured the customer's down payment for the job! The customer looked up our company name, which is the name the scammer had used when securing the deposit, found our real number, and called us to have us settle up. I was confused and that is when the sh*t hit the fan for that scammer! The customer was livid and told me he would handle it and not to worry. I was worried but the customer was brilliant! He sued the pants off of the scammer! That was the most satisfying outcome we had concerning scammers but that one guy who sued the scammer was the only one who stood up for us. It made us feel so alone in our uphill battle. I cannot even imagine stealing a dumpster! That is beyond crazy! We had an employee steal our work van so he could go steal drinks from a convenience store with his drug buddies one day and I thought that was ridiculous! Arrested over a root beer and then, having a vehicle theft added to the root beer theft? Then the van was impounded and searched and they had drugs and stolen goods in it! So it went from a root beer theft to grand theft! It was a bit funny in a way, except the morons were set free on bail and went right back to "work". Not for me obviously, because I fired his sorry butt. I mean he went back to his job of stealing and selling drugs! I had to pay to get the van out of impound by the way!! UGG!! Stealing your boss' van so you can steal root beer and stealing a dumpster? Yup, those are beyond crazy! You and I need to write a book about dumb criminals! LOL! Thank you for making me feel less alone. I truly appreciate that!
