Hair customers getting tangled in scammers’ web

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - You’ve heard of different types of scams – mail scams, credit card scams, you name it.

But what about scamming in the hair-styling business?

It’s been going on for years, and now it’s not only impacting people in our area, but a local hair salon says it’s impacting the business, too.

Last year, the Federal Trade Commission said one in four people lost money to fraud on social media.

That’s $2.5 billion lost from January to June of last year.

Scammers are even scamming people for hair styling and then not delivering on their promises.

For lots of different hairstyles, many stylists will require a deposit as a form of protection for both themselves and you. When scammers take advantage of the deposit, they scam you out of your money and make trustworthy hairstylists’ jobs even harder.

Getting your hair done is supposed to be a relaxing experience, but scammers on social media are changing that, and impacting some of our local beauticians.

“It is shocking that people are out there and just taking advantage of random businesses,” said Karen Collins, owner of Salon at Surrey.

Victims find who they think is a stylist online, book an appointment and pay a deposit on Cashapp, Venmo or another money transfer service, only to be blocked the day of their appointment.

Collins says she hasn’t had just one person, but at least five people, show up to her shop thinking they are meeting with a stylist they met on Facebook, only to realize they’ve been scammed and her shop is the address the scammers are giving out.

“I had to say, ‘Ma’am, we don’t do that service’, at this point. And they understood it was not from me that they had probably been scammed,” she said.

Collins says she’s upset that hard-working shops are being put in the middle.

“It is a shame when our hard-earned money then gets taken by people that are just using our businesses. I would just warn people, always know who you’re doing business with,” she said.

The Better Business Bureau warns not to use peer-to-peer payment apps when making purchases. But if you do, they suggest using a credit card for extra protection.