Spam, Scammers, and the Cost of Hustle

I got an email a couple days ago from someone claiming to represent a company called Commercial Cleaning Southwest Florida. Apparently, they were excited about cleaning my "computer training center" on Del Prado here in Cape Coral. That was interesting news to me, since I don't have a training center. My business operates entirely online. The address they referenced is a mailbox. No classrooms. No labs. No dusty keyboards in need of disinfecting.

Hey, I just wanted to reach out because I noticed that your computer training center is located on Del Prado Blvd S in Cape Coral! I'm sure that keeping your training rooms and labs spotless must be a priority for you and your students, right? I'm asking because we manage a local cleaning business, and we'd love to help you maintain the cleanliness, so that your training environment feels professional and inviting. I'm going to be in your area soon seeing a few other clients. Want me to swing by your computer training center to get a feel of your place and pull together a quote?

Kind regards,
Kayla Munro
Regional Commercial Director
Commercial Cleaning Southwest Florida

I replied. Politely, but directly...

Kayla,

I want to be direct and clear.

While I understand you are trying to generate new business, I have a strict policy when it comes to spam. I do not do business with companies that send unsolicited marketing emails or text messages. If I need a service, I will research vendors myself and make contact on my own terms. I do not appreciate advertisements simply showing up in my inbox.

Additionally, the information in your message is based on incorrect assumptions. The address you referenced is a P.O. box. My business operates 100% online. I do not have classrooms, labs, or any physical training facility that would require cleaning services. That address is tied to a Staples mailbox location. A minimal amount of research would have made that clear before sending spam solicitations.

Spam burns more bridges than it builds. I specifically won't do business with companies that send spam, just like I will never buy anything from a door-to-door salesman, especially once he ignores the no soliciting signs on my lawn.

Please remove my contact information from your marketing list and do not contact me again.

After that, curiosity got the better of me. I looked up the company. It doesn't exist. The person doesn't exist. The domain they emailed from was created last month. In other words, it has all the hallmarks of what we're seeing more and more of these days: fake local "businesses" generating leads through spam, then farming the actual work out to whoever will do it cheapest, whether or not they're licensed or even qualified.

I recently watched a scam-buster on YouTube break down a similar air duct scheme. The playbook is simple. Blast out emails and social posts. Offer a too-good-to-be-true price. Collect payment. Then scramble to find someone, anyone, to do the job. Quality is irrelevant. Once they've got your money, they're gone.

Now here's the bigger issue: Even if this particular email had come from a real cleaning company, I still wouldn't do business with them. Why? Because unsolicited marketing burns trust immediately. If I need a service, I'll research it. I'll look up reviews. I'll make the first move. When someone barges into my inbox based on bad assumptions and zero homework, that's not hustle. That's noise.

Which brings me to the question I'm wrestling with. Should I have replied at all? Was my response too blunt? Or is ignoring them the smarter move?

On one hand, there's something satisfying about calling out lazy spam. On the other hand, responding at all confirms your email address is active. That alone can put you on more lists. Silence might be the more strategic choice. I'm pretty confident in my Gmail spam filter to keep out most of the spam. This one snuck through, but it's pretty good about catching the majority of it.

However, I don't respond at all to text messages, because that for sure when you respond to one, then they know they got a live number and a million more messages come through. I used to have fun with those people because somehow I ended up on a commercial funding texting list and all these companies were sending me unsolicited requests for short money loans like "what kind of position are we looking at?" I used to joke back with them like "how about the position I had your mom in last night?" But then it just made the situation worse. More spam. And no one seemed to care about their mom at all.

The lesson here isn't about cleaning companies. It's about due diligence. Whether you're hiring someone to clean ducts, manage ads, build a website, teach you Access (ehem), or do anything remotely technical, take a few minutes to verify who you're dealing with. Check the domain registration. Look up the business entity. Read real reviews. If the company supposedly "local" has no footprint beyond a freshly minted domain and a Gmail-style blast email, that's a red flag you shouldn't ignore.

There's nothing wrong with earning business. There's everything wrong with pretending to be something you're not. In an age where AI can generate convincing emails in seconds and scammers can spin up fake brands overnight, skepticism isn't cynicism. It's self-defense.

As for me, I'll keep running my very dusty, completely imaginary training center from my very clean, entirely virtual office. (1)

LLAP
RR

(1) Yes my business is 100% online but I don't pretend to be anything else. The whole reason I have a P.O. Box is in case someone needs to mail me something like a check. I don't want folk showing up at my home which has happened before. When I used to live back in Buffalo people would stop by and ask "Hey can I pick up the CD that you're going to mail me? I'm right here in Buffalo." Sometimes they would just show up because my address was on the website. It was quite awkward. So from that point on I used a mailbox for everything.