OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. – Scams can ruin any festivity but what’s worse is when it potentially ruins a little kid’s party. A Central Florida rental business says they took to social media after one too many customers called off bounce house rental scams.
Isaias Dingui, owner of ‘Bounce N Around Rentals,’ says instead of just getting calls for just bookings, he is getting told of scams.
“I got a call from the customer the other day about money she was about to send to the company on Facebook she found,” Dingui adds. “She was about to send, I think, a $100 deposit, but it was a scam. “
Dingui goes on to say this is not the first time he has gotten a call with the same situation. He said he went on to make a social media post for people to beware.
“You would be surprised how many calls I get on a weekly basis about people not getting their money, and then everyone is sad because the bounce house didn’t come through,” he said.
Gerry Mendiburt is the Director of Investigations for Better Business Bureau of Central Florida, and he says these types of scams are something they see often.
“We definitely regularly see this kind of scam come through our scam tracker where folks looking to rent a bounce house, tables, or chairs for parties,” said Mendiburt.
According to the BBB of Central Florida, across the state in the past year, over 800 imposter scam tracker reports, and as for the last six months alone, there were over 500.
“Typically, folks find these on social media. It has a low-ball offer, and that reels them in. What we have seen is a lot of people paying deposits, and they get ghosted,” said Mendiburt.
He explains some solutions for people who may come into this issue.
“Make sure you check out the URL; you can look them up on bbb.org through our scam tracker, as well. If they only contact you through messaging apps, they don’t have a phone number, if they only want to take certain kinds of payments and don’t accept credit cards,” he said.
For companies like ‘Bounce N Around,’ which is located in St. Cloud but services across Central Florida, Dingui says he is hoping by creating awareness will help everyone in the end.
“This is what we do for a living, and it’s sad that we’re losing customers’ faith because of people who pretend to have inflatable companies in their not,” said Dingui.
Mendiburt does suggest for everyone to do your research when it comes to booking things on social media, and if for some reason, you do decide to go through with it, pay with a credit card so you have recourse.