Mystery Airtasker tradie Toai Tri Pham accused of not finishing work for Geelong locals

Angry Geelong residents allege a tradesman who targets people via outsourcing app Airtasker and uses a number of names has ripped them off.

Up to 14 people allege Mr Toai Pham took money without finishing work.

A group of furious Geelong locals claim a mysterious tradie has been targeting people in the area via a popular outsourcing app.

Fourteen people from across the region all claim a tradesman who goes by the name Toai Pham ripped them off in a similar fashion.

According to one, who wanted to remain anonymous, Mr Pham makes his customers think he is their friend after offering to do jobs posted on Australian-based app Airtasker.

They claim he did this by offering to do other jobs around their properties off the books, after doing the promised work.

Mr Toai Tri Pham

He also seems to use different names, mostly going by Tommy or Michael, but his name on official documents appears to be Toai.

Casey Noble from Clifton Springs was approached by Mr Pham after posting a job on Airtasker in March 2022.

“I put an ad up to fix a security roller blind and he responded and said he would come over and do a free assessment,” Ms Noble said.

“He came over and fixed the blind and I transferred him $150 directly, he said if there is anything else we need help with he’s a jack of all trades.”

Ms Noble jumped at the offer, as she and her partner had “a bunch of stuff to do.”

Ms Noble continued to text Mr Pham after May 25.

According to her, Mr Pham did some odd jobs over the next couple of weeks.

“A few days later we asked him to mount a TV for us, we hadn’t bought the TV yet and he offered to get a discount on one through one of his friends that works at Harvey Norman if we just transferred him money first,” Ms Noble said.

“I said ‘no thank you’ and he came and completed the work.

“I told him that we were wanting to install a new sink in the kitchen and replace the bench on the kitchen island.”

Shortly afterwards, according to Ms Noble, Mr Pham presented her with a cost breakdown for material and labour and asked her to transfer him the money, which she did.

That was when, according to Ms Noble, he began going cold.

“From March until May it was a lot of back and forth with different excuses as to why he couldn’t come and complete the work and then one day he messaged me asking if I was overseas, which I was but I had no idea how he would even know that, so that freaked me out a bit,” she said.

“He then asked me for more money for a booking fee which I said no to and shut him down saying I’m not giving him any more money.

“Then it was more pretending he was coming over to do the work and then petered out into nothing.”

At this point Ms Noble estimates she had paid around $2500 for unfinished work.

The Geelong Advertiser has been provided proof of payment and text messages that show Mr Pham, going by Tommy, became unresponsive after May 25, 2022.

Ms Noble took her complaints to the police to no avail, and in what she described as a “last resort” posted her grievances to a Bellarine community Facebook group.

She said the response to her post was “shocking.”

People from across the area began replying, claiming they too had been scammed by Mr Pham.

It led to the creation of ‘Pham Scam’, a Facebook group that now contains 14 people who allege to be victims of Mr Pham.

One member of the group, who did not want to be named, claimed he paid Mr Pham $15,000 for work at a unit in Waurn Ponds.

They claimed the work Mr Pham did at his property was not up to standard.

Seperate tradesmen were hired to fix the property, and emails seen by the Geelong Advertiser show these workers pointing out defects in Mr Pham’s work.

Another member of the group said that she felt let down after hiring Mr Pham via Airtasker in 2021.

Work allegedly done by Mr Pham in Waurn Ponds. According to a tradesman who was tasked with fixing the shower there were a number of issues.

She claims Mr Pham did “more finished work than unfinished” around her Geelong West property before becoming unresponsive, still owing her $2500.

“Looking back he was getting me to pay for things he hadn’t finished,” she said.

“It’s really icky, he befriended us.”

“I think his MO is rip people off for around $2000 so they don’t bother taking him to VCAT.”

One of the group members, Andrea Collins, has a VCAT hearing with Mr Pham on December 1.

According to Ms Collins she paid Mr Pham over $5000 to do work at her Newcomb home, but alleges he didn’t do any more after being paid.

“He’s really smart,” Ms Collins said.

“After a while my daughter said ‘wake up, he’s not coming (back)’.”

Ms Collins said he claimed to also live in Newcomb, while Ms Noble said he told her that he lived in Leopold.

An ABN attached to the VCAT hearing and to invoices say his name is Toai Tri Pham and he is based in a postcode in Melbourne’s west that includes Sunshine, Sunshine West, Sunshine North, Melbourne, Albion and Derrimut.

Airtasker advised it had investigated accounts associated with the same phone number that Mr Pham provided Ms Noble.

They also confirmed they “restricted this user from the platform in 2020, meaning he could no longer make offers, comment on tasks or be assigned new tasks.”

Airtasker confirmed they had deleted duplicate profiles using the same number in the past.

It’s unclear whether the now deleted profile used the same phone number, as Mr Pham provided it to Ms Noble via messages on the app.

Airtasker said when users took conversations off the platform or provided personal details, they were not able to monitor this.

It’s also against their policy for users to provide personal phone numbers and information to one another.

Mr Pham was approached for comment via the same phone number.

Originally published as Mystery Airtasker tradie Toai Tri Pham accused of not finishing work for Geelong locals