Power Washing and Roof Cleaning Forum

Someone attempted to scam us but they did not succeed. This is how they went about it. Someone posing as a homeowner requested a quote via email. He gave us an address and explained he was not home but in the hospital recovering from cancer surgery. We have had somewhat similar legitimate requests before with no issue. We have even did jobs for customers out of town. Regardless, we emailed him a quote and he accepted. He asked if we would do him a favor since he was in the hospital. He wanted to give us "his" credit card number, charge an amount over the quoted price, deposit the overage into "his" bank account and keep the rest. The red flags raised as this was a tall tale sign of a scam. Without intended to clean "his" roof, I played along and he gave me a credit card info. I immediately called the police but unfortunately got the run-around. They stated they couldn't do anything and suggested I call a bank. The bank suggested I call the Feds. I called a number and they suggested I call another number. I gave the info to that forth person and asked that they at least attempt to contact the owner of the cc and have the card immediately canceled. That person didn't really say she could or would. I just didn't feel the concern. My objective want to help the unsuspected card holder and to stop or possible catch the perp if he/she was operating in the USA. But in all these conversations, no one wanted the computer IP address or emails from the perp. No wonder there are so many thriving scammers.