Beware of scams that follow natural disasters
Reuters – Mon, Nov 5, 2012 2:54 PM EST
By Mitch Lipka
(Reuters) - Natural disasters can bring out the best in people, and also the worst.
Following disasters like superstorm Sandy, opportunists and scam artists prey on victims as well as those who want to help. You can expect scams related to home repair, tree removal, used auto sales, charities and investment - not to mention price gouging.
Hundreds of price gouging complaints, ranging from hotel rooms to generators, have already been logged by the New York attorney general's office. It is illegal in most locations to drive up prices in the aftermath of a disaster when demand climbs.
And many scams prey on people who want to help disaster victims.
"After practically every disaster, in the United States or abroad, charity scams pop up," says John Breyault, vice president of the National Consumers League. "We saw charity scams pop up after Hurricane Katrina, the earthquake in Haiti and the Indonesian tsunami, to name just a few."
Home-repair and tree-removal scams, for instance, count on local companies becoming overloaded. An offer to get work done quickly can be awfully tempting to a desperate homeowner.
"These fraudsters often show up unannounced at consumers' doors after a disaster offering to quickly repair damage at cut-rate prices," Breyault says. "All too often, they simply take the deposit and run, or take the payment and do purposefully shoddy work that may leave consumers' properties in even worse shape than when they started."
This can be a double-whammy for consumers since they lose the money they paid the scammer and may also have to pay to fix damage caused by the fraudster, Breyault adds.
To read the entire article from Mitch Lipka/Reuters:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/beware-scams-natural-disasters-195427868.html
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