Home repair is home ripoff; two scam elderly woman

By: Mike Conley | McDowell News
Published: January 24, 2010

The McDowell County Sheriff's Office is warning folks, especially the elderly, to be on the alert for scam artists preying on local homeowners.
Sheriff Dudley Greene said two men visited the home of an elderly woman in the Upper Haw Branch community on Thursday. The men went to the woman's house with a big piece of linoleum. One of them talked to her about doing some home repair work. While he kept the elderly woman distracted, the other man went back in her house and stole some of her cash, according to the sheriff.
One of the men was reportedly middle-aged and had white hair while the other was a younger man. The men, both white, rode around in a white pickup truck. Greene said his office was does not know the make or year for the truck.
This incident is similar to reports of a group of scam artists who are targeting folks in Woodfin, said Greene.
Woodfin police say a group of men in their 20s and 30s are going door to door offering home repairs, hoping people will give them work in this recession. In one instance, the scammers pretended to lay linoleum floors at a person's residence, according to a report from News 13 WLOS.
And like Thursday's incident, the scam artists in Woodfin used the offer to put down linoleum as a distraction while the other man went into the back bedroom and stole money, said Greene.
Greene said his office has had intelligence in the past about groups of people setting up in motels and going from one place to another conducting these scams.
"We don't know if it is the same or not but it is a possibility," he said. "We wanted to get an alert out."
Greene said folks should not let anyone in their home if it is someone they don't know or a home repairman that has not been called to the residence first. If you suspect that someone could be a scam artist, then try to get as much descriptive information as you can about the person and their vehicle. He urged folks to call the McDowell County Sheriff's Office at 652-4000 if they believe scam artists have targeted them.

Home repair is home ripoff; two scam elderly woman

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