Elderly Woman Scammed Out of Thousands in Home Repair Scam
In Lafayette, Indiana, an 82-year-old woman was scammed out of $11,500 by a 31-year-old man claiming to be a construction worker offering to build an additional room for her home. The construction was to take place in November of 2009 but the 31-year-old man and his associate left the job unfinished and completely disappeared according to the elderly woman. The woman stated she tried to call the man but his phone number had reportedly been disconnected.
A neighbor reported seeing the man working on the foundation for the new addition to the home and said he had broken a sewer main in the process of working. Court records have shown that the contractor has not been booked in jail as of yet and a warrant is currently out for his arrest. He faces a felony charge of Home Improvement fraud if he is caught.
There have been many instances when an elderly person is quick to place their trust in another person to help them in some way. Scammers always look for this quality in a person when they look for their targets. According to tips from the authorities involved in this case, one of the most important things that the elderly woman did was to keep from sending the contractor the full amount to be paid for the construction. According to the report, the elderly woman sent a small portion of the money and a family member sent another small payment. This is one of many ways that elderly people can keep from getting scammed out of thousands of dollars of money. In this incident, if the 31-year-old man is not brought to justice, the elderly woman will have lost thousands simply because she allowed this man to pull the wool over her eyes and make her think he was going to help her add to her home.
