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Her husband owns a landscaping business and was contacted by someone asking him to mow a lawn at a vacant property listed for sale. He should have verified ownership through the property appraiser’s website or reached out to the realtor first, but he went ahead with the job instead. The work took about 30 minutes, and then the customer asked to pay by check.

Paying by check is common enough among his regular clients that it did not immediately raise concern. Then the customer asked which bank he used and offered to send a picture of the check rather than a physical one, adding that they were not asking for his banking information. She told him right away it was a scam. She suspected they were going to send a doctored image of a stolen or fake check with his name added to it. He decided to play along anyway to see where things went.

What the Scammer Actually Sent

The check that arrived was a clearly altered image from some random business with her husband’s name inserted into it. He told the customer he had deposited it and that $250 had cleared, thanking him for the payment. The scammer’s immediate response was to ask for a screenshot of his banking app showing the available balance after the deposit.

He refused to provide one and kept asking why that was necessary, thanking the guy again without giving him anything useful. The scammer pushed harder, repeatedly demanding the screenshot and suggesting he could block out personal details if that was the concern. When the requests kept getting deflected, the man muttered something in another language and ended the call.

What the Scam Was Actually After

The screenshot request is the clearest clue about the endgame. If the scammer could see a screenshot showing that $250 was available in the account, that image could be used in at least two ways. It could serve as evidence of a successful deposit to show to future victims, making the fake check scheme look more credible when run on someone else. It could also be used to convince another target that checks of this type clear quickly and reliably, making them more likely to accept one.

The fact that the check amount matched the exact cost of the job makes the typical overpayment reversal less likely as the primary goal, since there was no obvious surplus to ask back for. But the scammer may have also been testing the waters to see whether the banking app screenshot revealed enough information to guide a follow-up move. Visible account numbers, routing information, or balance totals can sometimes be partially readable even in cropped images.

The Missing Back of the Check

She noted that the scammer never sent an image of the back of the check, which she believes would have shown a fake endorsement for deposit. That observation matters because it suggests the scheme was not fully built out or the scammer was moving quickly and relying on the target to fill in gaps without noticing what was missing.

A legitimate check deposited through a mobile banking app requires both sides of the check to be photographed. If her husband had actually tried to deposit the image, the bank would have flagged the missing endorsement immediately. The scammer may not have realized that gap would be obvious, or they may have been counting on the target not knowing how mobile deposits work well enough to notice.

Reporting and Whether It Goes Anywhere

They now have the image of the altered check, which includes the name of the real business whose check was stolen and modified. Reporting that image to the bank whose name appears on it is worth doing. Fraud departments at banks can flag the routing and account numbers associated with the stolen check and document the pattern, which is useful if the same instrument or account shows up in other fraud reports.

Filing a report with the Internet Crime Complaint Center through the FBI’s IC3 website is also worth the time, even if nothing comes of it directly. Scam operations like this one tend to target multiple people in the same geographic area or industry, and complaint data helps investigators identify patterns across cases. Local police can take a report as well, though the realistic chance of prosecution is low when the scammer is operating remotely and across jurisdictions.

What the Vacant House Adds

The choice of a vacant property for the initial job request was not accidental. A house listed for sale is easy to find online, comes with a public address, and has no current resident who might answer the door and complicate things. It gave the scammer a plausible reason to hire someone for a one-time job without any ongoing relationship or verification that could expose the scheme early.

Her husband’s instinct to proceed without confirming ownership was the opening the scammer needed. Verifying through the property appraiser’s website or contacting the listing agent before taking the job would have eliminated the opportunity entirely, which is the most useful adjustment for how he handles similar requests going forward.

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