The return to warm weather brings with it a rise in home maintenance service scams that Toronto police say regularly occur each spring.
From roofing to moving scams and painting to appliance repair scams, homeowners should be wary of fraud that comes knocking on their door as an offer for home service. Especially when there is a down payment of cash, individuals may never see that money again — nor the repairs and maintenance they paid for.
“Legitimate roofing or renovation companies don’t need to knock on doors to find work. They’re busy enough. So that should be a red flag,” Det. David Coffey, with Toronto Police Service’s Financial Crimes Unit, told the Star. “But it can literally be anything. It can be brick and mortar, aluminum, eavestroughs. Fraud is only limited by their imagination.”
In a public advisory sent on May 4, Toronto police cited an increase in roofing scams across the city and surrounding areas.
A person may approach a home — unsolicited — advising that its roof needs urgent repairs or offering to inspect the roof for damage. A large down payment is often requested in cash to pay for supplies but the end result is that consumers pay for unnecessary repairs, or the work is not done at all, and the person disappears after receiving the payment.
Coffey said while it’s important not to be paranoid, other red flags include whether the person is driving a vehicle without any company markings, wearing a uniform without a company logo, omitting paperwork or having paperwork without a company letterhead on it.
“There would be phone numbers [for a company] that you could call and verify that that paperwork is legitimate,” Coffey said, adding that people should not be rushed into making a decision and before even asking to see paperwork that they should be cautious.
“Do your due diligence and don’t suffer under the pressure tactics that these people use,” he said. “Fraud is similar right across the board. They use the same tactics, whether it’s roofing or renting or taxis or pizza, there’s always urgency: ‘You need to do it now, you have to give me the money now.’”
Large down payments in cash are a common marker, but fraudsters may aim low on the initial offer as well. That’s where an old cliche, Coffey said, still rings true: “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.”
Ryan Shupak, CEO and co-founder of Jiffy, a marketplace for homeowners to find maintenance and repair professionals, said this is where doing some “back of the envelope math” can save homeowners stress and money down the road.
“Being wary of why a person is charging so little is sensible,” Shupak said. “This specialized appliance repair person, for example, is likely not making minimum wage per hour. And so if that [low price] is what they’re charging you, including to drive out, without any hidden costs, there must be a catch.”
Questions to consider include: How long will the job take? How many people will be involved? Are these individuals making minimum wage? Are they making more than that, and if so, shouldn’t the quote be the opposite? What is the market rate for this profession and service?
“At the very least, we’re performing a service to homeowners who aren’t using Jiffy because they can just go on our website or app and see, for example, what is the hourly rate for an electrician in Toronto,” Shupak said.
Scammers may also catch people who legitimately need their roof to be repaired, making them particularly vulnerable targets, but that does not mean they need to accept service from the same individual notifying them.
“There’s no recourse once that cash leaves your hand, similar to e-transfer, which is how most of these call scams work [too],” Shupak said.
However, contractors who are doing bigger jobs or who have to buy materials (for example, installing a new furnace or roof shingles) are also wary of being scammed by homeowners. So they may want a deposit in some cases or accept payment in increments.
When asked how often people actually get their money back — if paid in cash — when they report these crimes, Coffey said it’s not often because police cannot trace cash.
“Scammers are going to get caught eventually … but generally, by the time we catch them, the money is gone,” he said. While police’s priority is to lay criminal charges and bring the suspect before court to then ask for restitution, Coffey said in instances like roofing and maintenance scams, the individuals “generally don’t have a lot of money. So, you can’t get water from a stone.”
However, if homeowners do get to the point where they request to see paperwork, Shupak said it should include items such as insurance, a piece of letterhead with a phone number and licenses.
Certain professions are also regulated. For example, electricians are regulated by the Electrical Safety Authority (ESA) so homeowners can conduct a quick search of their name to verify their standing with the ESA. Or if a roofing contractor has employees then they should be searchable via the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board.
Coffey said while general frauds are increasing dramatically partly as a result of technology (including the internet, email, cyber fraud and crypto), home maintenance fraud remains on the lower end of the sophistication spectrum because it will typically involve a simple knock on the door or a phone call.
“People who are victims of these crimes always say to us afterwards, ‘I knew it didn’t seem right. If only I’d listened to that little voice in the back of my head,’” Coffey said. “Listen to that voice. That voice is your life experience telling you there’s something wrong here.”
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