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if you belong to a neighborhood Facebook
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group chances are you've seen a lot of
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posts like this where people are trying
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to sell you air duct cleaning services
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and there are so many of these posts
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that it's starting to make people very
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suspicious I had a friend of the channel
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tip me off to this and he mentioned how
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his communities group in Minnesota was
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just getting flooded with these posts
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and he was curious to know what was
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going on so today I'm going to show you
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what I found out and I've got to say
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there are some tangled webs down in
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these air ducts so buckle up and I'll
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tell you everything it started with a
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post from a guy named David Luke he's a
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member of this Minnesota Facebook group
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and he says hello everyone I would like
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to extend my duck cleaning services to
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anybody in need I have an experience of
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9 years now and I have started my own
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business I'm licensed and insured we are
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giving special discounts and we will
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show you before and after pictures of
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your Ducks through our duct camera if
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anyone is looking for duck cleaning
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services please keep me in mind PM me
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for further details all right sounds
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like a pretty straightforward Community
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post except scammers love creating
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profiles with two first names and the
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profile has like zero activity so I do a
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reverse image search using
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socialcatfish.com which is the best tool
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out there for reverse image searching
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and people identifying and this face
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belongs to a completely different guy
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that's why I'm blurring it the real guy
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probably has no idea his face is being
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used to sell duck cleaning services so
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now I know that he's an imposter but
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what's he got up his sleeve I write him
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and I ask what's the best way to get a
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quote for duck cleaning and he says Hey
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I just need to know your house size in
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terms of square fet and how many AC
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units do you have in your house to give
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you an estimate I say it's 2400 ft and
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we just have the one unit and he says we
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will charge you 250 for the service and
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I say great and he says would you like
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to schedule an appointment I say Y and
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he says he can have his team come over
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on Friday and he asks for my address
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okay what's his angle he's not really
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going to come to my house so I give him
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a random address that I find on a
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Minnesota Real Estate website
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then I ask do you have a website and he
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gives me the Facebook page for a company
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called USA deep cleaners but the website
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it's linked to says it's a family-owned
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and operated business that's based in
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Florida how is he going to send someone
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to this Minnesota address if the real
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company is based in Florida that's when
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he says kindly provide me your contact
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info so I can put you on our schedule
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and there it is kindly the only people
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that have used that word in the last 50
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years are scammers so then I give him my
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phone number and he says C1 Friday and
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thank you so much yeah okay David
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there's no way he's going to show up
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this guy's impersonating someone else
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and he's pretending to be a business in
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Minnesota that's actually based in
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Florida but we'll wait for Friday to
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come and while we wait let's try another
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guy who's also selling air duct cleaning
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services and see if it plays any
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different so I messaged Daniel melinger
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who's using the picture of an author
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that social catfish help me identify and
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he's also selling air duct cleaning in
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Minnesota I say What's the best way to
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get a quote for duck cleaning and he
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says hi could you confirm me what is
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your house and how many furnace and AC
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units do you have yeah it's pretty much
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the same response is David and he goes
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on to quote me the same price he ask
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when I need to have it done and I say
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ASAP then he says okay can we come
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tomorrow between 9:00 to 12:00 p.m. for
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the services hey that works for me the
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sooner I can get to the bottom of this
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scam the better so he asked for my
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address and I give him the same address
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that I got from the Real Estate website
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and then I ask him for his website and
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his company name name and he gives me
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the Facebook page for America's best
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duck cleaning which is a great name for
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a company now the pictures are all stock
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images except for this one their trucks
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have a logo and a website called
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american.com and I go to this website
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and I learn that they are what looks
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like a legitimate company based out of
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Indiana and when I call they have no
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idea about somebody named Daniel um we
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are an independent company in marville
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Indiana so that wouldn't be us okay so
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then then asked me for my phone number
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because the tech is going to call me
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before he comes tomorrow all right what
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in the crap is going on I was fully
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expecting them to charge me 250 bucks
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and then just never show but apparently
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you only pay them when the job is done
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this isn't making any sense how are they
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going to scam me but tomorrow comes and
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I completely forgot about this because I
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don't need my ducks cleaned and I don't
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even live in Minnesota but I miss a text
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from a guy who said he's on his way to
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my house uh excuse me and then I get a
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text from Daniel saying hey Ben it's
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Daniel from America's best duck cleaning
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my tech waiting outside your house and
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he is calling at this number please pick
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okay what on Earth is happening this
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Daniel is using a fake picture and a
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fake name and he's representing a fake
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company but apparently he sent someone
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to this address in Minnesota so I called
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the tech to see what's going on I came
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to your house but I ringed like many
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time there is nobody in the house I
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don't
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know oh now at first I think that he's
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pulling my leg but then he tells me that
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he noticed a forell sign on the house
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and and in front of the house I think uh
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they put the something like you are
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selling the house or some stuff like
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that it's not that house holy crap this
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guy really went to the address that I
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provided what was he going to do there
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so then I tell him that I'm going to
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talk to Daniel and reschedule and Daniel
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tells me that we can reschedule for
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tomorrow at the same time and I ask him
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again if I'm paying before or after the
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job and he confirms that I pay after so
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is this a scam or not if this is a real
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air duct cleaning service then why are
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they using fake profiles and business
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names so then I asked him about this
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americlean website that's on the car in
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his profile and ask him if that's his
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website and the link that I send him is
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a redirect link that I created at
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grabify.ip address of whoever clicks on
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it and he clicks on it and he's
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redirected to the americlean site but
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I'm able to see his IP address and he's
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not in Minnesota or Florida or Indiana
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he's in Pakistan
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a guy in Pakistan is running an air duct
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cleaning company in
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Minnesota this is the weirdest thing
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I've ever come across so that's when I
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call the number on the Facebook page
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that Daniel gave me and there's no
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answer but I later get a text from that
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number saying hi it's from air duct
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cleaning services how are you are you
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looking for the duct work cleaning I say
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yes and he ask what's the size of your
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house how many AC units and furnace do
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you have it's the same freaking sales
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pitch and I hit him with my redirect
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link and once again the guy's coming
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from
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Pakistan so that's when I call him to
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get to the bottom of this uh hi good
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afternoon and who this is RO and from a
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cleaning services and where is your
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office based out of uh we are from
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minap you guys I lived in Minnesota for
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2 years and I can tell you this is the
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only person on Earth to ever call it
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Minneapolis it says you're in
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Pakistan what the bro I'm not from
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Pakistan uh uh yeah you
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are well that pissed him off but he
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needs to be smarter if he's going to
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conceal his true identity so we've got
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Daniel who's really in Pakistan and
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apparently so are his co-workers this
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got me Googling air duct scams and I can
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see that they're everywhere but they
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don't really go into detail about who's
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behind the scam or how it works they
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just warn you about people that aren't
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certified who might do a crappy job but
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then I stumble across a story from a
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Canadian newspaper published a couple
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years ago titled duck cleaning scam
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trace the Pakistan and I talked about a
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team of telemarketers based in Pakistan
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that advertised duck cleaning services
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but when the workers showed up they only
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pretend to clean the Ducks by blowing
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air through them they took about an hour
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to do a job that normally requires three
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then when the job was done the customers
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usually paid the workers in cash with
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$50 going to the man in Pakistan while
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the remaining $100 was taken by the
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workers and apparently the workers were
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arrested but they pointed to a man in
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Pakistan as the head of the operation
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could this be the same thing except now
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they're using Facebook groups to reach
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people so I called back this Tech that
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showed up to the house to see who
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referred him what's your what's your
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supervisor's name Daniel yes what what's
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his last name why I'm trying to um get a
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hold of Daniel and I don't know which
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Daniel it is can you tell me his last
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name okay if you if you want you can you
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you can res with me directly um but you
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don't know Daniel's last name you want
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to so I'm done with you okay
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okay this is getting really weird so now
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I'm looking for more of these air duct
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agents to dig deeper I contact a guy
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named Ali's John who claims to have a
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company called USA deep cleaners which
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is the same company that David Luke
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apparently represents and when I tell
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him that another guy works for the same
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company he gets very suspicious and he
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goes quiet so then I start looking at my
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local community Facebook groups and sure
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enough we've been flooded with air duct
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offers too people who say they've moved
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into the community and want to sell some
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air duct cleaning services so I contact
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a Julia and she follows the script to a
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t she asks for the square footage and
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quotes me a price of
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$249 then I ask her for her website and
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it's called A1 duck Services which looks
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like it's probably fake but then I ask
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if I can call the office to schedule a
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cleaning and she says sure and she gives
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me the number to her manager who's a guy
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named Harvey except nobody picks up the
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phone then I message a guy named Mark
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Brian another dude with two first names
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who's using someone else's picture the
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script is the same but he says his
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company is purple Ducks which is
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apparently a real company based in Utah
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but when I asked him to call me the
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number is the same number that Julia
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gave me for her boss Harvey at A1 duck
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Services okay I thought that he worked
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for purple Ducks why is he calling me
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from A1 now I missed the call but he
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leaves me a voicemail hello band this is
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Mark from Duck cleaning services hope
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you're doing great uh give me a call
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back whenever you are available I hope
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you have a nice Daye goodbye and I'm
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pretty sure that that voice isn't coming
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from this face so I call up to talk to
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Harvey at a1. cleaning hello hi is this
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Harvey uh yes this is Harvey who's this
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Harvey sounds a heck of a lot like Mark
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H this is Mark yes this is Harvey who's
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this they're the same picture and and
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you know Mark yes Mark works with
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me um cuz you sent you sent me a
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voicemail last week and you sound
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awfully like
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Mark no just a
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second H this
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is
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Services give me a call back whenever
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you are available at 7 that that's you
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you left me a voicemail saying that your
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name was Mark so I I don't know why
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you're calling yourself Harvey now H
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this is Mark
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services that that was you right
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this freaking liar but by this point
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it's Friday and I'm starting to get all
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these phone calls from technicians who
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want to come over to the house that I
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don't even own hello this is Jason
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with uh we have an appointment plan
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today so I get on the phone with these
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texts to figure out what's going on and
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they appear to be legitimate technicians
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in Minnesota who are just as confused as
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I am Foreigner that called you from
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Pakistan tried to to the duck clean
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thing I mean I don't know how long you
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have but the the short story is this
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they just tell me that their office
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sends them jobs
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one guy tells me that he has another guy
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that finds him customers through
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Facebook marketing they do some type of
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Facebook advertising and I don't know to
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the extent of what that is I just know
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he gets a lot of jobs off of Facebook
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now eventually I get one of these guys
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to break I say what country are you in
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and he says USA I say you are not you're
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in Pakistan and then I hit him with
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proof which seems to really stun him I
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say you're using another man's profile
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picture why and he says because he wants
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to look like a real profile he goes on
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to say that labor in Pakistan is very
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cheap and duck companies contact them
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for leads he has technicians that are
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both in Minnesota and New Jersey now I
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really can't tell from this guy who
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approaches who do the duck companies
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contact him or does he just reach out to
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these technicians and say hey if I can
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line you up with a job will you give me
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50 bucks my guess is the latter because
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most of these techs don't know where
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these leads are even coming from so is
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this a scam I guess it could be because
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you don't know who they're going to send
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to your house you might get a very
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reputable Tech or you might get some
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Rando with a vacuum cleaner and that's
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why you're seeing so many bad reviews
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and scam warnings why not just tell the
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truth why not just say that you're
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representing a company and you have some
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technicians in the area and you'd love
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to give a free estimate why create a
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fake profile in a business page and
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pretend to be someone that you're not
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why do you even need to use a face how
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about you just learn how to create
00:12:55
Facebook ads and then run those ads on
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behalf of the technicians you can build
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up a nice clientele then everything's
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automated and you're not spending all
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day posting in Facebook groups like a
00:13:04
creeper seems like an easier and more
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profitable way to run a business don't
00:13:08
you think so if I was to give you some
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advice to avoid air duct cleaning scams
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I'd say find out who the actual company
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is before they send someone to your
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house and check their reviews and look
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up their actual phone number and call
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them up to make sure that they're the
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ones coming and not someone else and
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make sure that they're nadca certified
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legit companies won't get nervous when
00:13:28
you start asking them hard
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questions and if one of these pakistanis
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on Facebook sold you on the service then
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I'm all for them getting a commission
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but not if they're lying or leaving out
00:13:38
important details so make sure that you
00:13:40
know what you're signing up for and
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hopefully this video sheds some light
00:13:44
into what's really going on but I'm also
00:13:47
very interested to know what your
00:13:48
experience was or if this has happened
00:13:50
to you so let me know in the comments
00:13:52
below and I will see you all later
