Staying a Step Ahead of the Con Artist!

Prepar­ing for the Next Scam

Every night we watch the news; there is a new vic­tim of a con artist’s games. How do we equip our­selves with the tools to avoid falling vic­tim to a scam? The adage “if it sounds too good to be true…it prob­a­bly is” is a good start. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, we must ver­i­fy offers as best we can before com­mit­ting to a ven­dor. Here are some scams to be aware of and some tips to pre­vent falling vic­tim to them.

The Home Repair Person

A com­mon tac­tic is to offer a “free” inspec­tion. Then the per­son advis­es sig­nif­i­cant repair work that alleged­ly requires cash in advance. In cas­es like this, it’s essen­tial to pro­ceed with extreme cau­tion. Nev­er be con­vinced to give some mon­ey in advance. Always take the time to ask and check ref­er­ences. Obtain a writ­ten esti­mate, a con­tract of the work to be com­plet­ed, and a com­ple­tion date. You can check with cre­den­tials with 3^rd par­ty agen­cies like the Bet­ter Busi­ness Bureau or Min­istry of Con­sumer Affairs. Get­ting mul­ti­ple quotes is an excel­lent way to inform your­self about the task. Remem­ber, the best price is often not the best val­ue.

The Service Person

This per­son often tries to enter a home on the premise of try­ing to check your phone line or gas line etc. Be very care­ful about open­ing your door to strangers and con artists, and we advise nev­er let­ting a stranger into your home for an appoint­ment you did not ini­ti­ate. Most legit­i­mate com­pa­nies will call ahead to make appoint­ments and pro­vide the prop­er call­back infor­ma­tion and iden­ti­fi­ca­tion.

Telephone Fraud

The caller will por­tray them­selves as a Police Offi­cer and ask you for a dona­tion or to assist in catch­ing a crim­i­nal by with­draw­ing your cash. NO police depart­ment will call you to request this.   Oth­ers call mak­ing an offer too good to refuse, but you must pro­vide mon­ey or a cred­it card num­ber in advance. Nev­er buy sight unseen, unso­licit­ed items or ser­vices over the phone.

The Free Prize / Trip scam

You receive a call or let­ter con­grat­u­lat­ing you for win­ning a boat, car or vaca­tion. You must pro­vide a cred­it card to pay the tax or shipping/admin fee to receive it. Do not fall for this. Legit­i­mate con­tests nev­er require you to pay any mon­ey to claim a prize.

Medical Fraud

Seniors are often the tar­get for alleged “good deals” on health or med­ical items. All the pre­cau­tions apply here; it like­ly is if it sounds too good to be true. Check with a legit­i­mate doc­tor or health care pro­fes­sion­al before enrolling in any offers.

A red flag should go up when­ev­er any­one approach­es us with an unso­licit­ed offer! No mat­ter how entic­ing the offer or pitch may sound, we must always do our due dili­gence to ensure we are not part of the lat­est scam. In the event you have been vic­tim­ized, ask for help. Call the Police or Min­istry of Con­sumer Affairs as soon as pos­si­ble to report the fraud.