Utopia Haus is the first all white luxury bounce house rental business in Sacramento.
04/28/2023
SCAM ALERT! We weren’t going to share this experience out of embarrassment for being scammed but we are now facing a huge loss and feel inclined to share and spread awareness.
A new client inquired with us for party planning services along with our rental services. I asked to hop on a call for a consultation and we fine tuned the details of the event.
The client asked to pay using credit card and after explaining the transaction fees I sent over the contract and a pay link through our business account with Chase.
Additionally, the client asked for assistance paying their catering vendor due to the fact that the catering company did not accept credit card transactions.
Although I don’t ever assist with this type of request - this client was very kind and enthusiastic about this celebration for his daughter so I asked for the catering company’s name and contact information and called to verify the details. Once I spoke and verified with the catering company’s owner and waited for my client’s payment to clear in our account - I proceeded to send the caterer their payment via Zelle.
Long story short, this went on one more round. The more my client and I spoke about adding more details to his daughter’s party, the more money he tacked on to his balance with us and the more he requested for my assistance to send money to the caterer for items such as mini cakes that I would use to decorate the kids table, etc.
All the funds cleared in our account and as I proceeded to ask for completion of contract and a photo ID, I realized he stopped responding.
A day later I get notice that those transactions were fraudulent from a stolen credit card and the sum of money he paid us and the caterer was charged-back and deducted from our business account.
Not only was this very realistic client fake but the catering company was too. Essentially they cleaned money through our small business and ran with the money - leaving us with a loss over $10k.
Chase denied our claims and hold us responsible due to the authorized payments I sent to the “caterer”.
Please be extra cautious with who you help in good faith. I thought I was helping a dad/kind gentleman. UGH 😞
