Ecently, the salon i work in was taken for a ride by an individual named dustin farley. He came in late one evening with 2 of his female friends requesting that they all get haircolor, arguably the most expensive service a hairstylist performs. After racking up three highlighting services, two eyebrow waxing services, and various product purchases, he wrote a check with a generous tip and the three amigos left the shop, en route to a drag queen show in birmingham. The group required 2 seperate stylists to work on them that night, so there were two of us expecting to recieve the money from the check.
Upon trying to cash the check the next day at dustin's bank - premier bank in cullman, alabama, we were notified that he had insufficient funds - which we almost certainly knew would happen. Attempts were made to contact dustin on the phone number on the check, only to find out it was a fake number. His email address was also a fake - go figure. We were able to contact dustin through his website on myspace.com and asked him to please make a deposit - that we needed the money as soon as possible. Of course he said the bank must have made a mistake and that his check was good, and that he could drop back by the shop later in the week and use his debit card... But that would have done no good if there were insufficient funds in the account...
Upon the 4th attempt to cash the check at the bank, we were informed that he had closed his bank account altogether. The same day, another salon in town called our shop to report that she too had been ripped off by dustin earlier on the same day he came to our shop. What a man!
The most frustrating part is that he is taking his 2 female companions around town, paying for things like hotel rooms and hair color and expensive meals, all fraudulently. The three discussed their recent beach trip with us, all financed by dustin, and while he was in our shop he also attempted to book a cruise over the phone, but was denied because he was underage. The boy who is causing all this commotion is only 19 years old and will only say that he is in "sales" as a profession. We were outraged to find out that he has been doing this for quite some time now, and there seems to be no end in sight.
So how can we stop him? As petty as it sounds, money is important to people who are self employed, especially in the amount he ripped us off for. He is ripping innocent people off left and right and getting away with it.
Any advice on what steps to take to stop him from continuing his lies would be appreciated.
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