Check Fraud and Dallas Small Business

Bert Roofing hit by check theft & fraud

Our office manager was going over our wholesaler statements due in early August and noticed that two of our ordinarily largest bills where much higher than normal. The explanation was easy, when we looked into the matter there was the current month amount as well as the prior month balance. We knew the checks had been written and mailed on time so we needed to contact our suppliers. 

Calls were immediately made to ABC Supply and Wholesale Roofing Supply to see what our correct and up to date balance was. Neither ABC or Wholesale Roofing Supply showed any record of a payment on the July bill. We then checked our Chase account online and the checks to both ABC and Wholesale Roofing had cleared our account. Something was not right.

After second calls to the accounting departments of both wholesalers the results were the same, no check had been received or credited to our account. Things were starting to have a very weird vibe about them. We dug deeper into our online account. We look at the check to Wholesale Roofing Supply and it did not have the normal "For Deposit Only" stamp on the back of it but rather an individual's signature which was sloppy and difficult to read. It was clearly a fraudulent endorsement.

The check to ABC Supply was abused in an even greater manner. It was altered. "ABC Supply" was completely erased and the words "Wholesale Roofing Supplies" was written in it's place follow by the same fraudulent illegible signature. A third check to West End Lumber in a much smaller amount was also discover stolen, altered, and cashed.  

The family owned and operated East Dallas Roofing Company know as Bert Roofing was the victim of a serious crime. 

Nicole McElwee, our office manager and Vice President, was immediately on the phone with the fraud department of Chase Bank reporting the events. Fighting the sickening punch to the stomach feeling, I went to the local Chase branch to close our existing account and open a new one ASAP so we could make our weekly payroll and continue.

The local Chase branch was very helpful in closing down the existing account and opening a new one. Even though we were simply changing one Bert Roofing account with Chase to a new account with Chase, photo ID was required. The Chase employee also went to State of Texas public records to make sure I was an officer of record with the proper authority to be in charge of the Bert Roofing account. I could not help but to contrast this detailed work with the fact someone had recently and fraudulently cashed two checks with a value greater than that of the average new car. 

Retracing events after reporting to Chase, these three checks had one very common denominator. They were all dropped into the same US Postal Collection box in the drive through line outside the Casa Linda branch on the same day. Our checks had been stolen from the US Post Office, likely the same box we dropped them off in.

Next we tried to report the whole thing to the Dallas Police Department. They did not let us make a report and said that the loss is to Chase Bank and they must report it. The US Postal Police were a different story and wanted every detail we could provide. A follow up call from a postal theft investigator revealed to us that theft from US Postal Boxes is an increasing crime and there have been many thefts from this same postal box in Casa Linda, a fact we wished we had known about earlier.

The good news is that the Casa Linda Post Office has 24 hour a day surveillance footage of this postal box. The detective hopes review of this tape will reveal the thief and lead to an arrest.

So now we wait. We wait to see if some one is caught. We wait to see when Chase will reimburse us for letting a fraudulent check pass our account. The only other thing we can do is pass along the warning that your outgoing mail in a US Post Deposit Box may not be the safest option. We have moved most of our bills payable fully to online banking. An now when we need a check mailed, we park and drop our mail off inside the post office.

Watch Your .NET !

Like many who run a business I Googled myself.  While that phrase sounds odd, it is actually a very healthy thing for a business to do. With one of the older domains around pages of results turned up. First search result was our website BertRoofing.com followed by Pinterest, Facebook, Yelp, Twitter, and most of the listings you would expect to find. As I went back a a few pages on the results I found less known listings. On about page six of the results I came across "BertRoofing.net " .

I assumed that the ".net" version of my website was someone named Bert in a different part of the country. Naturally I clicked on the link to visit the website. It was a very plain site titled "Bert Roofing" with a simple contact form and to my shock a local Dallas 214 telephone number!  I used Google once again to search the telephone number and it quickly pointed to one of my local competitors with a very different name.

Bert Roofing has been around for 25 years and we have worked hard doing things the right way to build our name and reputation and this guy was stealing it. After I shared this discovery at work, our Office Manager did some investigation and found that this same guy had done the same ".net" scam on Scott Roofing, Arrinington Roofing, and several other well established businesses that all show up well in the search engines.

With all these websites having the same phone number, how did this phone get answered? So we called. The phone was answered with mumbled words and "Roofing", the perfect generic answer.  We asked "Who is this?" and the reply was "Who did you call?"  The person answering the phone was deliberately evasive.

We immediately sent out "Cease and Desist" letters and emails as well as inform several other owners of the websites that were being scammed. We also informed Karen Fox, Executive Director of the North Texas Roofing Contractors Association, who then passed word of this to the entire associations membership.

We spoke with Christine Scott of Scott Roofing after she had spoken to the owner or the fake websites. She informed us that the explanation was that he was a victim of an unscrupulous SEO / Internet Marketer and had no knowledge of the fake websites. Our earlier phone call makes us think that explanation unlikely.

Within a few hours the fake Bert Roofing website was down as well as all the others. The problem was stopped but who knows how much business was lost before we found out about this. Every small business needs to look out for this and protect themselves.

NTRCA Lunch & Learn April 10 2012 - Adjsuting

What Contractors can and can not do is the topic of the upcoming educational meeting.

Contractors are not allowed to be Adjusters which is how it should be, but these line sometimes become blurry and this educational lunch sponsored by the NTRCA.  Two attorneys who specialize in this area will be the guest speakers.

Time: 11:30 to 1:30

Location: International Bowling Museum, 621 Six Flags Drive, Arlington TX 76011

 Preregistration via the NTRCA website 

Updated Website Bert Roofing

Just a quick note that BertRoofing .com has had a major update for the first time in a while.

I hope you will stop by and check us out.

Roofing Prices Rising Fast in 2013

Southern Shingles, our close neighbor, and most every building wholesaler have sent us letters announcing 10-12% price increases in most products that should take effect later this month. The wholesalers are simply passing  along the information previously given to them by the manufacturers.

Petroleum is to blame for this. It is the major cost component of shingles two fold. First asphalt is the main ingredient of a typical shingle.  Second, transportation cost greatly impact roofing as the materials are very heavy.

Hurricane Sandy has also had an impact on building materials as the price of OSB decking has increased about 30% since the storm hit. OSB and most lumber products are commodities which can have very sudden and large price swings. Unlike the shingles, I expect these products to fall later in the year. Shingle on the other hand only seem to go up.

Roofing Review For 2011

2011 saw a significant quantity of hail damage in may areas of DFW including Prosper, Coppell, Mesquite, and my own Lake Highlands neighborhood in Dallas. Like all storms, the lower end of the roofing industry was out in force going door to door. As things have slowed a larger presence of established roofing contractors is more visible.

In 2011 we also saw significant increases in the price of roofing shingles. The 20% or so increase is closely tied to the world price and demand for asphalt, the main cost component to most residential roofing products.

Loosing track of how many years in a row now, but we are proud to announce that Bert Roofing Inc has once again been named bu Angie's List as a "Super Service" Award Winner for 2011. We also have two projects entered nominated for awards with the North Texas Roofing Contractors Association.

Spring 2011 Hail: We Are Not Hiring !!

Hail has pounded much of the Northern End of the Greater Dallas Area. Prosper, Coppell, and countless other areas. If you want a job in roofing, now is the time! I am reasonably plugged into social media. On twitter there are Tweets about sales positions and crews all over the place. In fact one of our best Project Managers was recently offered a new truck to jump ship to one of my competitors. He stayed put.

Despite a large influx of work, we will not be hiring. Even though a few added bodies would certainly increase our bottom line we will fight the temptation. There is just not time to properly train and supervise new estimators and crews during a hail event. Roofing has takes experience and on the job training. You don't just throw a newbie into the middle of things during a hail storm. The will lack technical roofing knowledge and practical skills to make sure an adjuster writes up a claim properly.

You obviously don't want a newbie taking care of you roof, but how can you spot one?

• Real roofers don't drive cars. They drive trucks. 
• Ask questions...the rookie will only have a memorized pitch, not a deep working knowledge. 
• Did they get up on your roof? No is not the good answer.
• Did the offer an estimate to you? Many are quick to want nothing more than to see the insurance papers.
• Did they knock on your door? Good roofing companies have more than they can handle right now. It is a new guy that has the time to go door to door.
• Is their sales pitch more about how much of your deductible they can save you (an unethical and likely illegal act which is a future blog post) or the quality of the job and how qualified they are?
• Do they have Texas plates on their truck? If they are out of State, the are at a minimum new to our area.
• Go to Craigs list - find out who is hiring. 

If you want a roofing career Bert Roofing Inc. might be for you. Just not right now.