808-351-8688

An ad for my personal cleaning services was placed on Next Door App. I was contacted via text regarding setting up a cleaning appointment. We also verbally spoke, the man's name claimed to be "Fred" no last name was exchanged at this point. I was provided "Fred's telephone # of 540-319-7343. He wanted to Zelle money to me to make a down payment and commitment for my services. After "Fred" supposedly sent me the money, he contacted me via text stating that because he used a business account he was being charged a $500 fee to do so. . I received a text with confirmation that the money to me was sent and processed, in this correspondence, a telephone # of 808-351-8688 which was supposedly Zelle's refund department. Not thinking anything about it, I called without confirming the # was valid and was given the instructions of purchasing a separate gift card to refund to "Fred", with the understanding I would be refunded back through the Zelle website, which obviously did not happen. In addition to that the phony "Zelle" acquired my account # and withdrew a second $500. Upon all this happening, I attempted to contact them back to be hung up on multiple occasions. "Fred" claims the house cleaning was for an address of 89 Albany Street, Buffalo NY 14213 which is a physical address when looked up. After researching the address with the tax assessor's office, the current owner is Ruel Sebastien. At this point in time, realizing these people were unscrupulous they scammed me and now when attempting to call them back, the calls cannot be placed. [BBB Scam Type: Phishing] [Business: Zelle Impostor] [Location: NY, USA- 14227]