[Andrew]

Originally Posted by Mark.B

Not everyone rips you off Paul, but a significant minority do.

You only have to look at the number of threads about this, or the number of people with comments in their sig about "never pay anyone til they've done the work".

There's clearly a hardcore of dodgy people who are sullying the name of genuine types such as yourself.

I think the majority of that blame falls on the part of the buyer that failed to do their research before sending money. If members would do some research on the prospective person they want to hire it would eliminate 99% of the problems. Mind you there will still be the occasional person with great reputation that scams someone, but in most cases it comes down to poor judgement calls. Would you give a complete stranger $10,000 up front to let's say redo your roof ? Of course not. It defies common logic to do so. If anything you give a much smaller deposit, and then you give the final percentage when the job is finished. I guess I just don't get how people fail to understand that the same logic applies to online dealings ?