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Xenoborg
Mar 10, 2007

Are the roofing companies that come around a whole neighborhood after storms a scam? One showed up today that I'm considering. They say they'll do a free inspection, and then talk to my insurance and if they agree its storm damage, off we go. I have an old roof that needed replacement in the next few years anyway, so it seems like worst case insurance says they wont pay for a new one and I'm in the same place I was. The roofers pitching today look like a decent and longstanding outfit, and even if insurance does agree to replace I wouldn't necessarily need to use them. Is this just how roofers get work, or is there some other facet to this like trying to upsell?

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Ham Equity
Apr 16, 2013

i hosted a great goon meet and all i got was this lousy avatar
Grimey Drawer

Xenoborg posted:

Are the roofing companies that come around a whole neighborhood after storms a scam? One showed up today that I'm considering. They say they'll do a free inspection, and then talk to my insurance and if they agree its storm damage, off we go. I have an old roof that needed replacement in the next few years anyway, so it seems like worst case insurance says they wont pay for a new one and I'm in the same place I was. The roofers pitching today look like a decent and longstanding outfit, and even if insurance does agree to replace I wouldn't necessarily need to use them. Is this just how roofers get work, or is there some other facet to this like trying to upsell?
If you Google "roofers knocking on doors after storm scam" there's a bunch of warnings (mostly from roofing companies, but a couple from insurance companies) about a lot of these people being fly-by-night scam artists who will do a lovely job on your roof then disappear.

shame on an IGA
Apr 8, 2005

Contractors of any stripe are not hurting for work right now, if someone solicits you instead of making you pledge your soul and your firstborn just to get them to drive out for an estimate you're about to get hosed.

Shroud
May 11, 2009
I worked for a roofing company for a few years. If you're interested, I can give you the low-down.

Short answer: it depends. What I would do is ask them if they're GAF Master Elite certified, an Owens Corning Platinum Preferred Contractor, or both. If they can prove that they are (they'll have some kind of registration number you can look up online), you're good.

MrMojok
Jan 28, 2011

Ham Equity posted:

If you Google "roofers knocking on doors after storm scam" there's a bunch of warnings (mostly from roofing companies, but a couple from insurance companies) about a lot of these people being fly-by-night scam artists who will do a lovely job on your roof then disappear.

Not quite the same thing but a while back I got a call from someone who must've gotten my name from a data broker. He left a message addressing me by name, saying they had put a new roof on my house back in 1995 when it was owned by the previous owner, wanted to know if he could come out and inspect it for any new damage.

My house was built in 2002.

Fruits of the sea
Dec 1, 2010

Xenoborg posted:

Are the roofing companies that come around a whole neighborhood after storms a scam? One showed up today that I'm considering. They say they'll do a free inspection, and then talk to my insurance and if they agree its storm damage, off we go. I have an old roof that needed replacement in the next few years anyway, so it seems like worst case insurance says they wont pay for a new one and I'm in the same place I was. The roofers pitching today look like a decent and longstanding outfit, and even if insurance does agree to replace I wouldn't necessarily need to use them. Is this just how roofers get work, or is there some other facet to this like trying to upsell?

Google ‘roofing stormchasers’ and you’ll find a ton of horror stories.

Those outfits will usually roll into a town for a couple days and knock on a bunch of doors to line up work. Best case scenario, once it’s done (hastily and on the cheap) they’ll leave town and you won’t be able to contact them.

Sometimes they submit a larger invoice to the insurance company than they show you, in which case the homeowner is often the one held responsible for committing insurance fraud.

Or they ask for a sizable downpayment and leave without doing any work.

Check to see if their company is based close to you. If not, that’s a warning sign right there.

E: another thing to watch out for is if they mention federal programs that offer subsidized loans. Those loans are basically a mortgage on your property and you’ll lose it if you can’t pay the monthly costs.

Fruits of the sea fucked around with this message at 01:33 on Apr 20, 2022

bird with big dick
Oct 21, 2015

Just like meat salesmen.

Midjack
Dec 24, 2007



Anybody who knocks on your door to sell you something is scamming, or at the very least a patsy, full stop. Maybe not Girl Scouts with cookies, but anyone else treat as hostile from the start.

Mister Kingdom
Dec 14, 2005

And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light
I've gotten several calls wanting to sell me solar panels because they reviewed my house and say that I am in the perfect place for them.

I wonder if the owner of the apartment complex would be interested?

Tom Smykowski
Jan 27, 2005

What the hell is wrong with you people?

Mister Kingdom posted:

I've gotten several calls wanting to sell me solar panels because they reviewed my house and say that I am in the perfect place for them.

I wonder if the owner of the apartment complex would be interested?

I had a guy come to the door of my apartment with this once. On the second floor of a 3 story building. A building with a locked entrance that he somehow got through. In the middle of the day on like a Wednesday. :psyduck:

FMguru
Sep 10, 2003

peed on;
sexually

Fruits of the sea posted:

Google ‘roofing stormchasers’ and you’ll find a ton of horror stories.
Yeah, I thought fly-by-night roofing guys who knock on your door with an incredible deal were a common Traveler (Irish gypsy) scam. When it isn't storm season they knock on doors with a too-good-to-be-true offer to resurface your driveway.

BiggerBoat
Sep 26, 2007

Don't you tell me my business again.

MrMojok posted:

Not quite the same thing but a while back I got a call from someone who must've gotten my name from a data broker. He left a message addressing me by name, saying they had put a new roof on my house back in 1995 when it was owned by the previous owner, wanted to know if he could come out and inspect it for any new damage.

My house was built in 2002.

Dd you tell him that? What was his response?

I get a slight kick out of loving with scammers and stringing them along sometimes. I like Kitboga's youtube channel every now and then in this particular vein. It's always wild to me how mad they get at YOU for wasting THEIR time when it's like motherfucker, you called me, rear end in a top hat. Sorry I made your stealing from me require a modicum of effort.

MrMojok
Jan 28, 2011

BiggerBoat posted:

Dd you tell him that? What was his response?

Nah, I never called him back and actually blocked his number.

Fruits of the sea
Dec 1, 2010

Mister Kingdom posted:

I've gotten several calls wanting to sell me solar panels because they reviewed my house and say that I am in the perfect place for them.

I wonder if the owner of the apartment complex would be interested?

https://www.salon.com/2020/05/09/a-major-player-in-solar-energy-leaves-some-customers-seething_partner/

The other big player is Sunrun and there are a bunch of smaller companies as well. The daily show did a whole segment on the industry but I can't find it, sadly.

E: woops, wrong show. This is very thread appropriate :v: Here you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zv8ZPFOxJEc

Fruits of the sea fucked around with this message at 02:11 on Apr 20, 2022

ExcessBLarg!
Sep 1, 2001
I can't remember if I mentioned this before, but one of the local roofing companies replaced virtually every roof in our neighborhood (except ours) during the spring/summer of 2020. I assume they were looking for work during the early days of the pandemic before the stimulus money started rolling in.

They knocked on our door and offered a free inspection, which I declined. Reading reviews of them online, they appear to always find some evidence of storm damage and then work with the homeowner to file an insurance claim for a full roof replacement. They don't appear to cover the deductible so it's not totally illegal, but I'm still surprised that every one of our neighbors agreed to participate in insurance fraud.

Thing is, our neighborhood isn't that old--the oldest roofs were 15 years at the time. We bought a few years before and the home inspection listed our roof in great condition, and we've had no major storms since that would otherwise destroy a neighborhood of roofs. I'm also surprised that localized damage (the kind you might not see from the ground) can't be patched and require full replacement.

Sydin
Oct 29, 2011

Another spring commute
My parents bought a new house last year and in talking with the neighbors found out that a couple years prior a bunch of people in the area got together to go all in on a big multi-house roof replacement that they all got some kind of bulk discount on. The previous owner of the house had apparently not been in on this, was not responsive to my parents after the sale, and nobody could say for sure when the last time he replaced the roof was. So my parents were thinking poo poo, their house was built around the same time as all these others and if the last guy didn't get a recent roof replacement, then they absolutely need one. Unfortunately they live in an area where that work doesn't require a permit, so there was no record to go off of and they just had to bring people out to take a look and tell them if they needed a replacement or not.

First guy came out, got up on the roof for a few minutes, then came down and said "yeah you need a new roof, also new gutters, also there's something hosed up with your chimney. $30K.

Second guy didn't even go up on the roof, he just stood across the street and looked at the house for a bit before going "yeah you need a new roof, $22K."

Third guy went up on the roof and ran a camera line through the gutters and went into the attic, "yeah you need a new roof and also your gutters are hosed here are the pics. Also whoever did the insulation for your attic completely hosed up and covered up all the ventilation with insulation. $18K for the gutters and roof, also I'll fix your insulation for free because why not, also while you're deciding here's a sampler book of what we can do with your roofing tile and gutters." You will be shocked to learn this is the guy they ended up going with.

Contractor work really is one of those things where even though it sucks and takes forever you have to shop around and find somebody who at least seems like they're not taking you for an easy ride.

Haifisch
Nov 13, 2010

Objection! I object! That was... objectionable!



Taco Defender

Midjack posted:

Anybody who knocks on your door to sell you something is scamming, or at the very least a patsy, full stop. Maybe not Girl Scouts with cookies, but anyone else treat as hostile from the start.
In general if they're coming to you, they're not planning on doing you any favors. Door to door salespeople, unsolicited calls, junk mail, it applies to almost everything.

These scams keep working because there's still some percentage of people credulous enough to assume that someone reaching out to sell them poo poo unprompted must be honest.

axolotl farmer
May 17, 2007

Now I'm going to sing the Perry Mason theme

FMguru posted:


common Traveler (Irish g-word

nope, that's a racist slur

Volmarias
Dec 31, 2002

EMAIL... THE INTERNET... SEARCH ENGINES...
Not a common con, but probably still entertaining here.

Whooping Crabs posted:

This company isn't around anymore, but this is a very interesting video about a hard drive manufacturer called Miniscribe, which perpetrated a massive fraud and, among other things, fooled auditors by packaging up 26,000 bricks (actual bricks, not bricked HDDs) to show it had hard drives in inventory.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWwzQyXAvXI

azflyboy
Nov 9, 2005
I keep getting phone calls from "real estate investors" wanting to buy my home in Phoenix.

I don't actually own said property (my parents do, and my dad and I have the same first name), so I've started stringing them along for a while, negotiating prices, and then saying "oh, sorry, I don't actually own that", and hanging up.

One particularly insistent group (all different people clearly using the same script) refused to quit calling me, so I pretended to be very interested in learning about real estate investing, and asked who taught them how to do that. Once I got the name of the company, I reported them for a "do not call" violation, and that ended their calls.

Pekinduck
May 10, 2008

Volmarias posted:

Not a common con, but probably still entertaining here.

Thanks for posting, I remember learning about this case in college.

D34THROW
Jan 29, 2012

RETAIL RETAIL LISTEN TO ME BITCH ABOUT RETAIL
:rant:
Boy, these scammers and number spoofers are getting good. Missed a call about an hour ago from a number that leads back to a rolling shutter manufacturer in Ohio. It's just parallel to my line of work and not inconceivable that someone from such a place could be calling me.

Then again, they'd leave a message if it was important. :shrug:

Tumble
Jun 24, 2003
I'm not thinking of anything!
I let somebody waste some time trying to scam me a couple of weeks ago here in Philly. This guy comes up to me and asks me where some church is and says it's near some intersection. I kinda size him up and the guy was a few years short of elderly and sounds like he is from out of town so I say lemme look for you and get my phone out and search for him but pull nothing up. I tell him sorry and start to walk away and he says "I have to get to the airport are you honest?" And now I know something is up but I also wanna know exactly what is up so I lie and say "Yea, I'm honest".

He goes into a spiel about how his brother died recently and he wants to make a donation to that church but he has to get on an airplane soon so will I take this cash to the church for him? And he whips out what appears to be a big wad of money and starts to hand it to me saying "Please be honest and donate this" and now I know something is up but where is the scam...

I tell him he shouldn't just trust me to take your money and he says "Now I know you are the one to take the money for me. Please, sit and pray with me" and he sits down at a bus bench and I'm thinking 'well I have a knife, it's insanely busy so he isn't going to pull a gun and I don't think he has one and I'm faster and I have a decoy bill fold...' and I'm just too curious to see what the angle is.

So I sit.

He says "I will put the money in something... do you have anything?" And I had a winter hat in my jacket so I give him that, and he takes the fat wad of cash, puts it in my hat and hands it to me...

And then he says "You know since you are honest i know a prayer to bring you prosperity. You put some of your money in the hat next to mine so God knows you are honest too!"

Now I am laughing and I say "Ahh there it is. Give me my hat back." And he tries to play it off like he's offended and tries to guilt me saying it is terrible not to trust a man of God and I say "Gimme my hat back!" So he takes the wad out and throws the hat at me and I tell him "Just so you know I'd have given you ten or twenty if you'd asked nicely" which is a lie but I was kinda let down his scam was so stupid at the end so I wanted it to sting.

Also I forgot to mention he said he was from Africa and talking in a pretty bad fake accent but I didn't wanna upset him too much by calling that out too.

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry

Tumble posted:

I let somebody waste some time trying to scam me a couple of weeks ago here in Philly. This guy comes up to me and asks me where some church is and says it's near some intersection. I kinda size him up and the guy was a few years short of elderly and sounds like he is from out of town so I say lemme look for you and get my phone out and search for him but pull nothing up. I tell him sorry and start to walk away and he says "I have to get to the airport are you honest?" And now I know something is up but I also wanna know exactly what is up so I lie and say "Yea, I'm honest".

He goes into a spiel about how his brother died recently and he wants to make a donation to that church but he has to get on an airplane soon so will I take this cash to the church for him? And he whips out what appears to be a big wad of money and starts to hand it to me saying "Please be honest and donate this" and now I know something is up but where is the scam...

I tell him he shouldn't just trust me to take your money and he says "Now I know you are the one to take the money for me. Please, sit and pray with me" and he sits down at a bus bench and I'm thinking 'well I have a knife, it's insanely busy so he isn't going to pull a gun and I don't think he has one and I'm faster and I have a decoy bill fold...' and I'm just too curious to see what the angle is.

So I sit.

He says "I will put the money in something... do you have anything?" And I had a winter hat in my jacket so I give him that, and he takes the fat wad of cash, puts it in my hat and hands it to me...

And then he says "You know since you are honest i know a prayer to bring you prosperity. You put some of your money in the hat next to mine so God knows you are honest too!"

Now I am laughing and I say "Ahh there it is. Give me my hat back." And he tries to play it off like he's offended and tries to guilt me saying it is terrible not to trust a man of God and I say "Gimme my hat back!" So he takes the wad out and throws the hat at me and I tell him "Just so you know I'd have given you ten or twenty if you'd asked nicely" which is a lie but I was kinda let down his scam was so stupid at the end so I wanted it to sting.

Also I forgot to mention he said he was from Africa and talking in a pretty bad fake accent but I didn't wanna upset him too much by calling that out too.

That's an interesting variation on the pigeon drop.

Tumble
Jun 24, 2003
I'm not thinking of anything!

Humbug Scoolbus posted:

That's an interesting variation on the pigeon drop.

It was just such a terrible scam. There was no way that the guy was faster or stronger than me so unless he planned on pulling a gun in the middle of downtown surrounded by people I don't know what his getaway plan was beyond "Assume that this person will just let me walk away with their money and hat" if I had been dumb enough to put my money in my hat and give it to him. And also it is Philly so it's not a good idea to bet that the person you're attempting to take money from isn't down to fight you for that either, I have seen an old dude in a business suit slap around a crusty-rear end junkie for trying to take his phone.

Just seems like he ran out scam-steam at the end, really.

Tunicate
May 15, 2012

Close ur eyes to pray *runs off*

BiggerBoat
Sep 26, 2007

Don't you tell me my business again.

Humbug Scoolbus posted:

That's an interesting variation on the pigeon drop.

I feel like I've seen a version of this in a movie or show I watched recently but I'm totally drawing a blank on what it was called but remember it being kind of good. It was something to do with money in envelopes and the OP's story reminded me of it.

Fake Edit:

It was a BBC hidden camera show about scams where they try to bait marks, record it and then come clean at the end and give them their money back but I forgot the name of it. Kind of like Candid Camera meets Impractical Jokers and the movie House of Games. No idea how on the level it is since "reality TV" and all but one episode involved something like what the OP described except I think the con artists were pretending to be cops on a stake out.

I'll try to dig it up.

Volmarias
Dec 31, 2002

EMAIL... THE INTERNET... SEARCH ENGINES...
Yeah, my suspicion would be that after the other guy leaves, a couple of "undercover narcotics unit officers" would show up, say that actually he was a money mule, and they know that you're not actually the contact since he made them and was trying to dump it, but they need the money as evidence so hand it over unless you're actually part of this since your money is in there too and I guess they can arrest you, so what will it be?

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry

BiggerBoat posted:

I feel like I've seen a version of this in a movie or show I watched recently but I'm totally drawing a blank on what it was called but remember it being kind of good. It was something to do with money in envelopes and the OP's story reminded me of it.

Fake Edit:

It was a BBC hidden camera show about scams where they try to bait marks, record it and then come clean at the end and give them their money back but I forgot the name of it. Kind of like Candid Camera meets Impractical Jokers and the movie House of Games. No idea how on the level it is since "reality TV" and all but one episode involved something like what the OP described except I think the con artists were pretending to be cops on a stake out.

I'll try to dig it up.

The Real Hustle

BiggerBoat
Sep 26, 2007

Don't you tell me my business again.

Humbug Scoolbus posted:

The Real Hustle

Thank you Humbug

bird with big dick
Oct 21, 2015

what do you think is in these should we do a goon project to buy some and find out?



https://www.teslabiohealing.com/collections/shop-tesla-biohealing/products/tesla-medbed-generators?variant=37214479777953

Midjack
Dec 24, 2007




Rocks, and no.

bird with big dick
Oct 21, 2015

Valuable, magical rocks?

Remulak
Jun 8, 2001
I can't count to four.
Yams Fan

Nice. When I lived in the south side of Chicago (yes, Hyde park) I listened to the whole list of almost the same scam, complete with fake African accent, then like in a movie my Nigerian buddy walked by at exactly the right time and I roped him in to ‘translate’.

Much fun was had by all.

Rugikiki
Jan 15, 2008

Illinois Nazis.
I hate Illinois Nazis!



Bacta, obviously

The Lone Badger
Sep 24, 2007

Hazardous waste. Why get paid only once?

Tumble
Jun 24, 2003
I'm not thinking of anything!

Remulak posted:

Nice. When I lived in the south side of Chicago (yes, Hyde park) I listened to the whole list of almost the same scam, complete with fake African accent, then like in a movie my Nigerian buddy walked by at exactly the right time and I roped him in to ‘translate’.

Much fun was had by all.

Haha it's funny how these kinds of things become like "shady memes" or something, and get passed around between people and it make it's way all over the drat place.

Stuff like that makes me wish I was good at sleight of hand stuff, I'd love to have dropped one of those fake Jesus $20s in there just to see the end of tha stupid scam play out and pretend to be upset for a bit.

Oh yea, and the reason I have a couple of those fake Jesus Bucks is kind of funny too. I was riding the El line here in Philly going to Fishtown. For those that don't know, in that direction a few stops more is one of the worst open-air drug markets in the country so that part of the line is always populated by a ton of homeless addicts who panhandle on the train. A few days into December these two young guys got on the train and started handing out those fake JesusBucks to people on the train. They gave out a few and everybody who got one looked annoyed, when they got to me I took one and I stopped them and said "Yo, I know you think this is a nice thing to do but you need to stop right now. You're going to give one of these to somebody who actually wants and needs money and they're going to be extremely pissed. Do. Not. Give. These. Out."

One of them kind of tried arguing and said something like "We're only giving out the word of god on something somebody will take a look at" or something and I was like "Dude go buy some packs of cookies or crackers and print some words or something but stop giving out fake money you really could get your asses kicked, I'm not kidding." The other guy nodded and I think understood more clearly and they ended up getting off at the next stop so I like to think they listened.

But man what a stupid plan, getting people excited they're getting money only for it to be a piece of paper that you can't trade for drugs. I mean, I've actually had somebody get pissed at me to the point of yelling because I wouldn't give him a "short", which means the last bit of a cigarette, so I can only imagine what some of those maniacs would do if they got a fake 20.

Tumble fucked around with this message at 15:35 on May 7, 2022

BiggerBoat
Sep 26, 2007

Don't you tell me my business again.
I think we could start an entire thread on religious scams and so called believers in god/Christ with all the poo poo they pull.

The loving mega churches, miracle spring water hucksters and all that poo poo really grinds my gears.

Eric the Mauve
May 8, 2012

Making you happy for a buck since 199X
It stands to reason that people who have already demonstrated an eagerness to believe what a persuasive person tells them in the face of all evidence would be good marks, right?

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BiggerBoat
Sep 26, 2007

Don't you tell me my business again.

Eric the Mauve posted:

It stands to reason that people who have already demonstrated an eagerness to believe what a persuasive person tells them in the face of all evidence would be good marks, right?

Absolutely. And they get to hide behind the whole "I am a man of god" bullshit to lend it legitimacy. Still pisses me off.

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