If you run a dumpster rental business, you’ve probably dealt with credit card fraud.
It hit us hard in early 2024 when we suddenly found ourselves facing multiple chargebacks—and losing them all.
The customers were untraceable. Their phone numbers went dead, emails bounced, and even though we had signed contracts, we couldn’t fight the chargebacks successfully.
Then one day, I received a phone call from a confused woman asking me to explain a charge for several hundred dollars on her credit card.
“I see that this was for a 20-yard dumpster delivery,” I told her, giving her the delivery date and address.
“I’ve never ordered a dumpster in my life, and I have no relationship to that address at all. Please refund me immediately,” she responded, agitated and understandably confused.
That’s when it clicked—some of our customers were using stolen credit cards to pay for our services.
After researching online, I found that other dumpster companies were experiencing the same issue, and they had identified certain patterns among fraudulent customers.
We took it a step further, analyzing every order that resulted in a chargeback, and compiled a list of the most common red flags for fraudulent dumpster orders.
Red Flags of Fraudulent Dumpster Orders
We’ve trained our team to watch for these warning signs and discuss questionable orders as a group.
While fraud prevention is important, we don’t want to reject legitimate customers, so we look at the entire picture before making a decision.
That said, there is one red flag that is almost always a dealbreaker for us:
🚩 Red Flag #1: Failed Payment Attempts on Multiple Credit Cards
The vast majority of fraudulent customers attempt to use 3 or more different credit cards before successfully processing a payment.
It’s common for real customers to have one declined transaction and then retry successfully—this isn’t suspicious.
Even using a second card isn’t necessarily a concern.
However, if a customer fails on two different cards and then tries a third (successful or not), we almost always decline to service them.
This behavior almost never happens with legitimate customers, but it has been a consistent pattern among fraudsters.
Additional Red Flags to Watch Out For
A single red flag doesn’t necessarily mean fraud, but when 2-3 appear together, we usually decline the order.
Here are the biggest warning signs, ranked from most suspicious to least suspicious:
🚩 Red Flag #2: Using an Anonymous or Randomized Email Address
Most fraud cases we’ve seen involved Gmail addresses with random letters and numbers, such as jm412389@gmail.com.
Sometimes, scammers use an email that looks legitimate, like Rodolfo.gomez@gmail.com, but we’ve found that generic first-name email addresses are still suspicious when combined with other red flags.
✅ Safe Emails: We have never received a chargeback from a customer using a domain-based email (e.g., frank@roofers.com). These tend to be legitimate.
🚩 Red Flag #3: Phone Number Doesn’t Match the Delivery Area
Almost every fraudulent order has come from a phone number with an area code in a different state than the delivery location.
✅ Pro Tip: If you don’t recognize an area code, just Google it—it only takes a few seconds.
🚩 Red Flag #4: Difficulty Communicating Basic Order Details
Fraudulent customers often struggle to provide simple details about their order, such as:
• The delivery address
• Job site information
• Dumpster size needed
They may also sound rushed, hesitant, or unfamiliar with standard rental terms.
While language barriers can play a role, it’s not the language itself that raises suspicion—it’s the lack of clarity and evasiveness.
🚩 Red Flag #5: Billing Address Doesn’t Match the Delivery Area
If someone is using a stolen credit card, the billing address usually won’t match the delivery location.
Ironically, if the billing address exactly matches the delivery address, that can also be a red flag—it suggests the customer may not actually know the real billing address.
🚩 Red Flag #6: Inconsistent or Suspicious Behavior
Upon reviewing fraudulent orders, our team often recalls feeling like something was “off” about the conversation.
⚠️ Common signs of suspicious behavior:
• The customer seemed rushed
• They avoided answering basic questions
• They struggled to explain the details of their order
While gut instinct isn’t foolproof, we encourage our team to trust their intuition and flag questionable cases for review.
🚩 Red Flag #7: Not Caring About Price or Terms
Most customers ask about pricing before booking a dumpster.
Scammers, on the other hand, don’t care—they just want to get the order placed and get off the phone quickly.
🚩 Red Flag #8: Needing an Urgent Delivery
Fraudulent customers almost always demand same-day or next-day service.
While urgent orders are common, pairing this with other red flags increases suspicion.
🚩 Red Flag #9: Ordering Multiple Dumpsters
In several cases, we delivered multiple dumpsters to a fraudulent customer before chargebacks started coming in.
If a scammer finds a dumpster company they can successfully defraud, they will continue placing orders until they get caught.
🚩 Red Flag #10: IP Address from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, or a VPN
We accept online orders, and every fraudulent transaction we’ve encountered has come from either:
✅ Puerto Rico
✅ The Dominican Republic
✅ A VPN (Virtual Private Network)
Scammers can use VPNs to appear as if they’re in the U.S., but tools like Scamalytics can help verify suspicious IP addresses and block high-risk traffic.
Conclusion
Again, we do not automatically reject customers based on a single red flag.
Many of our legitimate customers show one or two of these signs (such as needing an urgent delivery or ordering from out of state).
However, when multiple red flags appear together—such as:
✅ An anonymous email
✅ An out-of-state phone number
✅ Multiple failed payment attempts
We review the situation as a team before deciding whether to accept the order.
If we decline service, we block their number and blacklist them in our CRM.
By sharing information and working together, our industry can push back against these scammers and protect our businesses from fraud.
Let’s Work Together to Fight Dumpster Rental Scams
📢 Have you encountered similar scams or noticed other red flags?
Share your experiences in the comments!
📩 Want to collaborate on fraud prevention?
If you’re in the dumpster business, reach out! The more we share insights, the harder it becomes for scammers to succeed.
