And he goes, “Oh yeah, this is the last check.
Finally these guys are out of my hair.
I told them no more work.
(MUSIC SEGUE)
[00:00:33] Bob: Welcome back to The Perfect Scam.
I’m your host, Bob Sullivan.
The communication takes place over email or social media.
The money changes hands electronically.
But some scams still happen in person beginning with something as simple as a knock on the door.
And these crimes are really troubling because, well, the criminals know where you live.
They could fix it quick and cheap, they said.
The fix turned out to be anything but quick or cheap.
[00:01:54] Bob: That’s just amazing to me.
So the first time?
[00:01:57] Rebecca: Uh, no, that was his fifth, I believe.
[00:01:59] Bob: Hmm.
[00:02:14] Bob: You didn’t do it, he did it.
[00:02:16] Rebecca: No, I, no, I did not do it.
[00:02:26] Rebecca: Well we actually bought him the gift certificate.
[00:02:38] Bob: Why not?
Well I can think of a few reasons why not, but that’s me.
David, and let me just say now we aren’t using his last name for privacy reasons.
David worked as an electronic technician in the Navy in Guam and at sea.
Then when we got out of the service, eventually landed a long term gig at Boeing.
[00:03:13] Bob: (chuckles) Um, did you work on specific aircraft?
But in our particular shop, we worked on all of them.
David lives in this home by himself so he was alone that day when the unexpected visitors arrived.
And that caught me by surprise – totally unexpected.
And so he got his ladder out and took a picture.
But these two construction workers, they turn out to be brothers named Matthew and Patrick McDonagh.
But when they come back to do the work, they have more bad news.
David’s foundation is cracking, they say.
[00:05:44] Bob: And, and foundation problems, that’s kind of scary, right?
That’s a big deal.
[00:05:48] David: Yes.
[00:06:09] Bob: The foundation may not hold?
Well that’s certainly scary.
But Matthew and Patrick are insistent that the work should be done as soon as possible.
They need a fairly large deposit, a check to pay for materials.
But the two men seem trustworthy and charming.
They have Irish accents; David can tell partly because his family heritage is part Irish.
And things like that.
[00:07:23] Bob: A few days go by and the work begins.
A crew comes by to begin some difficult digging.
[00:07:29] David: They uh, dug a trench along the foundation.
The metal and it was a combination of metal and concrete.
And by the time I saw it again it was all buried.
[00:08:21] Rebecca: Absolutely, yep.
[00:08:23] Bob: But it seems like the more they work, they more problems they find.
They want to put in a new walkway to the house.
By now there’s been a $15,000 check, a $20,000 check, a $26,000 check.
Clear out my bank account?”
And you know they kind of made fun of that a little bit.
And I thought it was just too much.
And so I thought it’d be best to just let them go ahead and finish.
Have you told your friends or your neighbors?"
And he goes, “Oh yeah, this is the last check.”
[00:11:29] Bob: The last check?
Well that should be good news.
But not when Rebecca learns how much all those checks have added up to.
And so when he told me, “Yep, last check.
Finally these guys are out of my hair.
I told them no more work.
[00:12:43] Bob: Oh, God.
[00:12:45] Bob: Rebecca doesn’t hesitate about what she needs to do next.
And I asked him, you know, “How long ago did they leave?”
And he said, “About 10 minutes ago.”
She jumps in the car with her husband.
They live only about 45 minutes away from Dad.
[00:13:50] Bob: What’s going through your mind?
I’m a problem solver by nature.
Uh that’s a big part of my job as a wedding planner.
And so just trying to figure out what are the next steps?
What can we do?
[00:14:06] Bob: Were you scared for your dad?
[00:14:07] Rebecca: Yes, very much so.
So she decides to insist that they take her dad back to their home that night.
They, I’ll be just fine, you know and it was really a, a big insistence.
And when you, when you get to know my dad, hes a very stubborn guy.
He likes to do things his own way.
[00:15:48] Bob: Here’s how David remembers that afternoon.
And uh, so I enjoyed my visit here at the house too.
[00:16:21] David: I, I was hoping the work would be somewhat legitimate.
[00:16:25] Bob: Yeah.
And they would never give it to him.
[00:17:13] Bob: Oh God.
[00:17:36] Bob: Wow, you guys are organized.
[00:17:38] Rebecca: We try.
That’s really impressive.
[00:17:49] Bob: And as her husband is wiring up the cameras, Rebecca calls the police.
[00:17:54] Bob: What’s their first reaction?
And I told her, I said, “Ma’am, this was almost half a million dollars.”
And she goes, “Oh, okay.
I’ll put you through.”
[00:18:10] Bob: Soon the police investigator is on their way to Dad’s house.
And so you call every single day and ask what is happening with your case.
And so that was day two.
And that also is day three and day four.
[00:19:33] Bob: And while Rebecca continues to be the squeaky wheel, they get a break.
The criminals do come back to the scene of the crime several times.
[00:19:42] Rebecca: With my dad’s neighbor setting up his video cameras, he was excellent.
He was such a huge help.
Uh, that happened very regularly for about four days after we stopped the check.
They…
[00:20:05] Bob: Oh my God!
[00:20:06] Rebecca: Yeah, they went by day and night scoping out his house.
[00:20:09] Bob: That, that would be so freaky to me.
[00:20:12] Rebecca: Absolutely.
And it was very validating that we took him away.
[00:20:29] Rebecca: The perpetrators themselves did not.
Um, so Matthew and Patrick did not get out of the vehicle.
And we did capture them saying, uh, “The old guy’s not home.”
[00:20:54] Bob: Oh God.
That’s, that’s really disturbing.
Did, the, the police were interested in that, I’m sure, right?
[00:20:59] Rebecca: Oh yeah.
[00:21:57] Bob: There is a pattern.
Reports of unfulfilled construction projects by these two men and reports from all around the Pacific Northwest.
[00:22:06] Bob: And that’s when you find yourself talking to an FBI agent, right?
[00:22:53] Lauren Watts Staniar: I thought it was absolutely devastating.
I mean this person is a valued member of our community.
He is a veteran.
[00:24:22] Bob: And that makes it clear.
This isn’t just a case of an argument between a contractor and a consumer.
And the telltales that, that law enforcement noticed right away with this scam were a couple of things.
[00:26:17] Bob: Wow!
That’s, that never happens.
[00:26:40] Bob: My God, that, that must have felt amazing.
[00:26:43] Rebecca: Oh, it was huge.
[00:26:53] Bob: Remarkably, half their father’s stolen money is returned.
Rebecca goes to the arraignment.
It’s the first time she sees the men who stole from her dad in person.
[00:27:19] Bob: Did you have any impressions when you look at them?
[00:27:21] Rebecca: Uh, not particularly.
[00:27:47] Rebecca: They did not at the arraignment.
[00:27:49] Bob: Soon after, Matthew and Patrick plead guilty.
The news is covered around the world.
Rebecca and her father go to the sentencing to plead with the judge that he impose a stiff sentence.
Here is part of her victim impact statement.
[00:28:13] Rebecca: “The theft has profound implications for my dad’s future.
As an elderly man he faces the very real possibility of needing long-term care in the years to come.
[00:29:23] David: I felt short-changed.
I thought they should have got a lot more, but you know, something’s better than nothing.
He’s got a $30,000 home equity loan to repay for example.
[00:30:06] Bob: What was it like to see your dad go through this?
[00:30:08] Rebecca: It’s heartbreaking, you know.
[00:30:42] Rebecca: Absolutely.
I don’t think the financial implications have quite gotten through in Dad’s thoughts.
And even in-home care is pushing that number as well.
[00:31:30] Lauren Watts Staniar: It’s really scary.
It’s a really scary part about this crime.
It’s just, yeah, it, it was scary.
[00:32:01] Lauren Watts Staniar: Yep.
That’s exactly right.
I know what to look out for.
In fact, you’ll find news reports from all around the globe.
[00:33:30] Bob: This is the kind of crime that victims might not think to report.
[00:33:47] Lauren Watts Staniar: That’s exactly right.
And you know that’s what these fraudsters count on.
So let’s just take victim David as an example.
The key, or the core, of this fraud was the claimed work on the foundation.
You’ve got water leaking in, and we can fix it.
I guess that’s right, right?
[00:35:00] Lauren Watts Staniar: That’s exactly right.
So you know that’s, acting quickly like that, number one, talking to your bank.
Number two, calling law enforcement.
Those two things can help protect your money.
But I can’t emphasize enough, first call, your bank.
Second, call law enforcement.
[00:39:13] Bob: Okay, I’ll emphasize that again too.
Unless you’re in some kind of immediate danger, your first call should be to your bank.
Okay, so how can consumers spot a construction scam like this?
[00:39:26] Lauren Watts Staniar: These scams, many of them follow a similar MO.
And I’ve had this happen to me.
So it’s, it’s common.
[00:40:28] Lauren Watts Staniar: Yes.
There is always going to be moss on your roof.
Do not worry about the moss.
So and by MO I mean sort of modus operandi, but that’s the first step.
Contractor knocks and you know you might say, “Hey, I’m not interested.”
Your house is going to fall down.”
And as you know, Bob, that’s a common scam tactic across all sorts of scams.
It should be a safe place.
You want to make it secure.
And they’re manipulating that too.
So they’re trying to create a sense of fear and a sense of urgency.
But they won’t let you take that card.
So if you say, “Hey, I’ll take this and do some research.”
They don’t want their victims to do that research.
So they’re going to kind of be sneaky about trying to take the card away.
So that’s another red flag.
[00:42:37] Lauren Watts Staniar: Absolutely.
There is a reason that this is a successful scam.
It’s, because it targets people’s homes and because they sometimes will do superficial work.
But yeah, we don’t want our, we don’t want our houses falling down.
And I was kind of meaning to get something done, get the moss off the roof or whatever.
[00:43:35] Lauren Watts Staniar: That’s exactly right.
And that is exactly what David thought here.
I felt like I had to pay them for the work that they did.
There’s, it feels much more like a regular business, right?
[00:44:55] Lauren Watts Staniar: That’s exactly right.
And they should be registered in whatever state you live in.
I need to take a beat.
Uh in a situation like this, if you were to do that, it would probably protect you.
However, it’s really hard to find people to do work on your house now, right?
[00:46:16] Lauren Watts Staniar: It’s so hard.
[00:46:17] Bob: Right, yeah.
[00:46:18] Lauren Watts Staniar: Yes.
Like oh, thank goodness.
I knew, I know how hard it is to find a contractor, right?
[00:46:28] Lauren Watts Staniar: Absolutely.
I’m a busy working mom.
And that’s why we want you to just watch out for these particular red flags.
[00:47:13] Rebecca: Uh, to me, it feels great.
[00:48:12] Bob: Maybe there’s partly a reason why it happened to you and your dad.
[00:48:20] Rebecca: Yeah, absolutely.
So I, I think it’s just great that you do this.
[00:48:48] Bob: For The Perfect Scam, I’m Bob Sullivan.
Call the AARP Fraud Watch web connection Helpline at 877-908-3360.
Their trained fraud specialists can provide you with free support and guidance on what to do next.
That address again is: theperfectscampodcast@aarp.org.
Be sure to find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
For AARP’s The Perfect Scam, I’m Bob Sullivan.
