Mississippi Department of Agriculture investigators have leads on suspected scammers who have convinced Greenwood residents to spray trees for termites.
One victim, Eloise Quackenboss of East Monroe Avenue, said homeowners should be leery of anyone seeking work.
“Everything he told me was a lie,” Quackenboss said of a man who approached her in her yard two weeks ago.
The man, along with an accomplice, told her he had looked at her trees and that they were infested with termites.
Quackenboss initially declined to have him spray, but he talked her into it, she said. She left the house, and when she returned, the men said they had finished. She paid them, but the next morning they returned with what was supposedly official notice that the wood-eating insects remained present and were a threat to neighbors.
They had her call an alleged expert who she said ended up being in on the con. Quackenboss wrote them a check but became suspicious and had her bank stop payment. She then contacted police.
In reality, termites are not a threat to trees because they do not feed on live wood, only dead, according to Jim Flautt of the state Agriculture Department’s Bureau of Plant Industry.
But many of the old oaks in Greenwood have diseases, Flautt said, and the scammers point out those problems and falsely claim they’re caused by termites.
The scam has already been pulled in Greenville, Cleveland and possibly Indianola, Flautt said.
He said the state is probably going to prosecute, and it could help strengthen the case if more people who have been approached come forward.
Quackenboss said the scammers did not look official but appeared as typical people who seek pay for yard work.
• Contact Charlie Smith at csmith@gwcommonwealth.com.
