DOOR-TO-DOOR SCAMS
DOOR TO DOOR SCAMS

Door-to-door scammers are lurking around almost every corner. Of course, if you own a single-family home, you are much more likely to be approached by these people. The best upfront advice I can give you is: if someone comes to your door and talks to you about doing a repair, do not let them in and do not fall for their scam.

IT’S GETTING NEAR WINTER AND YOU NEED TO HAVE YOUR FURNACE CHECKED

Obviously, this particular scam is much more prevalent in the north, where winters can get brutal. However, almost everyone in the country uses heat at some time. It is very important that you maintain your furnace properly but don’t rely on a door-to-door “inspection.” Here’s the scenario. Someone knocks on your door and says, “You know it’s getting near winter and it is very important that you have your furnace checked. You don’t want to die of carbon monoxide poisoning or have a gas leak that could cause your house to explode. For only $89, I will do the inspection.”
 BEWARE if it is a team and you are alone. In the case where there is a team, you can be pretty much assured that while one member of the team is in the basement or your utility closet checking out the furnace, the other one is rummaging through your house stealing money jewelry and other valuable items. You can pretty much be sure in that case that the “inspector” will find no problems. After all, his teammate has cleaned out your house while you were preoccupied with the inspector.

The second type of scam in this category involves someone coming to inspect your furnace and really perfuming an “inspection.” After inspecting it, they tell you there is something wrong with it and that it will cost many hundreds of dollars to repair It. The price quoted has nothing to do with what is actually wrong, if anything. It really has to do with what they think you can afford after sizing up up. Or, in some cases they will actually break your furnace and then tell you it needs repairs. Most likely, there was nothing wrong with your furnace in the first place, but these unscrupulous operators pray on the uninformed and the elderly to rip them off.

It is very important to have your furnace inspected every year, but have the inspection done by a well-known reputable firm or a firm that you have done business with in the past with satisfactory results. But NEVER, NEVER allow someone you don’t know into your house to do any type of work under any circumstances. That is a recipe for disaster.

HOME REPAIR SCAMS

Another door-to-door technique is also based on someone coming to your door and telling you there is something wrong with your house. A favorite is a person coming to your door and telling you that they had just been on a job in the neighborhood and noticed that your roof had problems. They then convince you to have your roof inspected and invariably they will find something wrong or intentionally damage something and tell you they found something wrong. Then they will tell you what needs repair and convince you that they are the best people to do that repair. They may even have a truck that has the name of their “roofing company” on the side. Honestly, no one is driving around your neighborhood from a previous job looking at other people’s roofs. Again, the likelihood of a door-to-door repair man being honest and trustworthy is between zero and none. Remember, the scammer might tell you about a problem with something other than your roof. It might be your gutters or your siding or your foundation if you have one. Nothing good ever comes from working with a door-to-door repair man. When considering repairs, always do your research. Look at the reviews, talk to your neighbors, even check the Better Business Bureau, even though I am not the greatest fan.

DOOR-TO-DOOR REPAIRS AFTER A CATASTROPHE

After a catastrophe, such as a tornado, a flood, an earthquake or a fire, scammers know you are emotionally fragile and subject to being conned by unscrupulous operators. After such disasters, scammers come out of the woodwork out of the ground, out of the sewers looking for people who are vulnerable to prey upon. If there is anything left of your property after the disaster, these scammers will be at your throats trying to convince you to hire them to do remedial work on your property. Most of them are not even licensed or have very much experience in dealing with the restoration you might need, or the cleanup that inevitably follows such disasters. Some of them could be middlemen who, after getting you to agree to the work, farm it out to another firm, in which case you are not only paying for repairs but also paying the scammer who approached you. It is important not to agree to any sort of remediation or repair without first dealing with your insurance company. Sure, your insurance might not even cover the damage (that’s another subject we will cover in another alert) but you need to make sure that, if insurance is covering any of the work, you get their okay before from your insurance company before commencing. Some insurance companies have contracts with cleaning, repair and construction people and the insurance company may only pay for work done by their affiliates.

Share by: