{"id":771,"date":"2026-10-01T15:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T15:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hilltopgrp.net\/hilltoparts\/?p=771"},"modified":"2026-10-01T15:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T15:07:08","slug":"scam-alert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hilltopgrp.net\/hilltoparts\/scam-alert\/","title":{"rendered":"Scam Alert"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_772\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-772\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-772\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hilltopgrp.net\/hilltoparts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/scam-alert-300x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hilltopgrp.net\/hilltoparts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/scam-alert-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/www.hilltopgrp.net\/hilltoparts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/scam-alert-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.hilltopgrp.net\/hilltoparts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/scam-alert-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/www.hilltopgrp.net\/hilltoparts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/scam-alert-200x200.png 200w, https:\/\/www.hilltopgrp.net\/hilltoparts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/scam-alert.png 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-772\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image by Treehouse Designs and Copilot.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3>Protecting Our Craft: A Scam Targeting Engravers Under the Name \u201cMelissa Gogan\u201d<\/h3>\n<p>At Treehouse Designs, we believe in craftsmanship, community, and trust \u2014 values that make small creative businesses thrive. Unfortunately, those same values are often targeted by scammers.<\/p>\n<p>Recently, an individual using the name <strong>Melissa Gogan<\/strong> and the email <strong><span \n                data-original-string='QAM3dU4ggaW8GRlYWadPLA==efdix4ZUNdMSi9uuT9ge4tbMy2Qz99MMoBgzS9UGtvWEkA='\n                class='apbct-email-encoder'\n                title='This contact has been encoded by Anti-Spam by CleanTalk. Click to decode. To finish the decoding make sure that JavaScript is enabled in your browser.'>go<span class=\"apbct-blur\">**********<\/span>@<span class=\"apbct-blur\">***<\/span>il.com<\/span><\/strong> attempted to place a large engraving order with us. The request included bulk plaques, a fake referral, and a demand to pay by mailed check \u2014 a known tactic in the <strong>overpayment check scam<\/strong> currently circulating among engravers, photographers, and custom makers.<\/p>\n<p>Multiple businesses have confirmed receiving identical messages, identical wording, and identical tactics. Some even arrived at a <strong>vacant property<\/strong> after booking.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re sharing this to protect our community. If you receive a similar inquiry:<\/p>\n<ul role=\"list\">\n<li>Do not provide your address<\/li>\n<li>Do not accept mailed checks<\/li>\n<li>Do not begin work without verified payment<\/li>\n<li>Trust your instincts \u2014 they\u2019re usually right<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Treehouse Designs remains committed to safe, transparent, and secure business practices. Let\u2019s keep our creative community strong.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Protecting Our Craft: A Scam Targeting Engravers Under the Name \u201cMelissa Gogan\u201d At Treehouse Designs, we believe in craftsmanship, community, and trust \u2014 values that make small creative businesses thrive. Unfortunately, those same values are often targeted by scammers. Recently, an individual using the name Melissa Gogan and the email go**********@***il.com attempted to place a &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hilltopgrp.net\/hilltoparts\/scam-alert\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Scam Alert&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[39,38,40,37,41],"class_list":["post-771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-goganmelissagmail-com","tag-melissa-gogan","tag-online-safety","tag-scam-alert","tag-tips-to-avoid-scams"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hilltopgrp.net\/hilltoparts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hilltopgrp.net\/hilltoparts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hilltopgrp.net\/hilltoparts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hilltopgrp.net\/hilltoparts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hilltopgrp.net\/hilltoparts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=771"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.hilltopgrp.net\/hilltoparts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":773,"href":"https:\/\/www.hilltopgrp.net\/hilltoparts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771\/revisions\/773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hilltopgrp.net\/hilltoparts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hilltopgrp.net\/hilltoparts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hilltopgrp.net\/hilltoparts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}