Purchasing a big-ticket item is no joke. That's why Erin Mantooth-Jackson took steps to protect herself.Erin and her husband own a farm southwest of Prescott. They planned to build out a barn and decided to use shipping containers for the project. The containers are wind- and water-resistant and very sturdy.She turned online to search for containers, scouring Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, and OfferUp. She opted with a seller who told her they were with a company called Durabox.
She tells the Let ABC15 Know team, she tried to pay with a credit card for protection, but the company insisted she pay by check. Not only that, but they requested the check be made out to an individual person instead of the business. Concerned and getting nervous, Erin didn't send the money. Instead, she went to Durabox's website and called the company number listed online.A company representative returned her call and stated:"This is not us. We don't know who Alex is. We don't know this invoice number or any of these contracts, and it's not the price that we sell them for," Erin recalled.
Fakes and imposters may try to cash in on the popularity of shipping containers. The threat is so real, the legitimate Durabox company used this incident to warn others by posting an alert to consumers on their social media.