Scammers return with the spring Older homeowners vulnerable

Scammers return with the spring Older homeowners vulnerable
The News Journal
By Terri Sanginiti
March 16, 2010

Eighty-six-year-old Holly Oak resident Robert Bennett has this advice for his fellow senior citizens: "Make sure you know who you're dealing with."

He should know, because he was bilked out of a lot of money last March by transient con men who offered to paint the foundation of his home -- cheaply.

By the time the men were done with the ruse, Bennett allegedly owed them $11,565 for work either partly completed or never requested.

The onset of warm weather brings with it the return of traveling bands of thieves who prey on seniors.

New Castle County police Senior Cpl. Trinidad Navarro said the home-repair scam is repeatedly used on "low-risk targets," namely senior citizens.

"The suspects will approach the homeowner with an unbelievable price for repair work and sometimes fabricate a story about the appearance of the home and its need for repairs," Navarro said.

"They use the line, 'Your roof looks like it is leaking,' or, 'Your driveway looks like it needs to be resurfaced,' or, 'Your house needs painting,' " Navarro said.

Or the con men may say that they have materials left over from another job they just completed in the neighborhood and can do the job at cost.

If they're hired to do the job, it's usually substandard or incomplete. And once they have the money, they skip town, Navarro said.

"A young fellow came up and said they were looking for work," Bennett said of his March 12, 2009, experience. "He said he could paint the foundation, steps and garage door for $500. The next thing I know, they're up on the roof and discovered a hole. Said the squirrels must have made it. I thought they were from the neighborhood. There are a lot of guys out of work."

Bennett said he agreed only to the paint job, nothing else.

According to court records, Bennett paid them $500 for the paint job.

The next day, they returned with a contract for $4,625 for the roof work, and on April 23 they asked for two more checks totaling $6,440. At that point, he said, his daughter threw the men out and canceled the two checks.

"Two days later after they left here, another two men showed up at my door looking for work," he said.

Two of the men were arrested a month later in Virginia and are now awaiting trial on charges they swindled eight senior citizens out of more than $100,000 last year. They are also accused of similar crimes in Pennsylvania.

In recent years, police have seen a rise in traveling thieves who work in pairs posing as workers sent by the water or power company to check a problem.

When the homeowner lets them in, one of the thieves usually distracts the occupant while the other goes rummaging through the house, Navarro said.

It's not hard for these con men to pick out the homes of senior citizens, said Jon Grow, of the National Association of Bunco Investigators.

"If you're very observant, you can see the house of an older person," Grow said. "You can see one trash can, no toys in the yard or old-fashioned Venetian blinds. They see them puttering around in the yard, or see a single older-model, large car sitting in the driveway. You just look around."

Grow said there are no statistics on how many seniors get bilked by these schemes each year.

Many of the victims won't come forward, or they won't admit it out of fear that their children will insist they stop living alone.

For every incident of senior abuse reported to authorities, five go unreported, said state Attorney General Beau Biden.

He said it's estimated that as many as 5 million seniors are victims of abuse -- be it financial exploitation, physical abuse or neglect -- every year nationwide.

"As seniors grow older, they trust people," Biden said. "So when a young man or woman shows up at their door and says, 'You need new storm gutters and I can do it for $60,' and no one shows up the next day after they paid them, they won't report it. That senior living independently on her own won't tell anybody for fear of facing the consequences that their family would question their independence."

Biden said seniors need to be empowered to speak up when they are the victims of crime.

The Senior Protection Initiative was established in 2008 "to prosecute those who have committed senior abuse, encourage victims to come forward and bring together state agencies, law enforcement and advocates to tackle these crimes."

"Spring comes after a tough winter, that's when these scammers come out," Biden said. "The reality is, scammers come out during the winter, too. Scammers come out in all seasons. You have to be on your guard, whether you're a senior or not."

A 63-year-old Claymont woman, who allegedly was swindled out of $3,725 last year, said she thought she was pretty smart. Now, she's embarrassed that she was victimized and feels stupid.

"He was a smooth talker who reeled you in with compliments," she said. "I felt intimidated, so I paid him an atrocious amount."