(Newswire.net — August 28, 2018) –An elderly man and woman in West Hartford, Connecticut recently became victims of a plumbing scam, according to the police. Authorities responded to a call for help near 20 Jessamine Street where officers found the elderly couple.
The couple explained to police that two plumbers came to the door and requested entry to check the pipes in the house. The men directed the man to turn on the kitchen sink while the woman was told to go to the basement and turn on the washing machine. In the meantime, the men would check the pipes throughout the home.
However, the so-called plumbers left the man and the woman in their posts, never returning to tell them to turn off the water. After realizing that the two men had fled the scene, the couple became suspicious and called for help. The first suspect was described as being a white male in his 30s or 40s wearing a white button-down shirt and the second suspect was thought to be a white male in his 20s.
While it was not yet known if anything was stolen from their home, the West Hartford Police Department called on residents to contact utility companies prior to allowing anyone claiming to be a plumber to enter their home.
This incident of plumbers showing up uninvited and offering their services, claiming to be working on behalf of the city or county, is one example of a slew of all too common plumbing scams. In this case, these faux plumbers are usually burglars looking for soft targets. Other examples of scams include plumbers charging for installing the best materials only to actually use lower-cost alternatives; plumbers who subcontract parts of the job to friends or family and then claim they have no control over the subcontractors’ hourly rates; working unlicensed and uninsured; padding the estimate with uncesseracy costs that look “legitimate” to get the homeowner to pay more; convincing the homeowner to pay before the work is complete, and other similar scams and means of fraud.
According to the plumbing experts at NuFlow Phoenix, the easiest way to avoid getting scammed by a crooked plumber is to always hire from a reputable company that does thorough background checks on each employee. Additional recommendations include getting referrals and references from friends, family, or plumbing stores as well as reading online reviews, getting multiple quotes from different plumbers, asking a lot of questions, and always checking invoices carefully.
It is a sign of a scam if a plumber gets offended, angry or annoyed by your questions or your request for recommendations and references. The bottom line is that you should not move forward with that individual or company and instead look elsewhere.