Any time you're given a check
before you do the work, you can bet it is a scam. As Miketfse said, contact the police. If they won't do anything, look up the bank that the check is drawn on and contact their fraud department. They will be interested.
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Have PV-500 & willing to travel.
"Answers are easy. It's asking the right questions which is hard." (The Fourth Doctor, The Face of Evil, 1977)
"Somedays you're the pigeon, somedays you're the statue.” J. Andrew Taylor
"I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him." Galileo Galilei