Scammers are seeking Juneau homeowners while they deal with the damage to their property from August’s record flood caused by glacial eruptions on the Mendenhall River.
A person from Marion Drive has lost more than $50,000. Marion Drive neighborhood has lost more than $50,000 in fraudulent invoices sent by a person pretending to be an official contractor from the area as per documents that were shared with KTOO.
Dave McKenna — who lives on Marion Drive — didn’t be fooled by this scam. However, believed it initially seemed convincing. McKenna engaged a local contractor to rehabilitate the land that was eroded and to reinforce the riverbanks at his home. As the work was near completed, he and his wife received an invoice by email from a person who claimed as their company.
“span style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”And there was just enough details to make it seem credible,” McKenna said. “None or any of this was warning signs of a super-red flag. .”
McKenna soon realized that she was a fake. Based on the Federal Emergency Management Agency, frauds of this kind are more prevalent after catastrophes, when bad actors pretend to be contractors, building inspectors or federal and state agents providing aid.
This has been the case since the flooding. It was the Juneau Police Department confirmed to KTOO that they’ve received numerous instances of fake invoices which were mailed to homeowners who had problems with flooding damage.
Scammers have extorted over $50,000
A homeowner found that the invoices were plausible enough to settle some of the invoices. The homeowner didn’t want their name to be published and didn’t want to be mentioned, however they shared receipts and emails with KTOO which illustrate how the scam worked.
The imposter contractor emailed with the homeowner for several weeks, responding to questions regarding the work they were doing and soliciting quick payment.
The initial request was for a loan of $10,500. The fraudster claimed that payment through checks are not feasible and demanded payments through three distinct payment methods such as Zelle and then Venmo and finally an immediate wire transfer.
A homeowner wired the payment of $10,000 to an out-of-state financial institution.
The second request for payment that was for $43,810 came with a fake bill that was stamped with the actual contractor’s name and address as well as logo. The homeowner transferred the money in two installments to nearby Wells Fargo account under the name J&J Ventures.
The emails indicate that the scammer then issued an invoice for services such as landscaping and permits works that the actual contractor didn’t have done. The homeowner stopped paying however, by the time they had finished, they’d lost $54,310.
Methods to recognize the signs of a fraud
Lieutenant Krag Campbell of Lieutenant Krag Campbell of the Juneau Police Department confirmed that there’s at least one open investigation into the flood repair frauds. The department also issued a caution about scams via their official Facebook account this month.
span style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”Generally when it comes to fraud, people want to be able to make quick judgments. They’ll have an urgency to this,” Campbell said. “In these situations it’s always better to be patient and speak with a trusted individual .”
According to Federal Trade Commission, payment requests made via wire transfer can signal fraudulent activity.
Lieutenant Campbell refused to divulge information about flooding repair fraud in the area however, he did say that anyone who suspect fraud should contact for help from the Juneau Police Department.
Informing the community
According to McKenna McKenna, 9 of the neighbors he lives with who live on Marion Drive got emails from the fake. In his instance the date of the invoice as well as the amount sought closely corresponded to the actual work that was being completed at their home.
McKenna says that the request for wire transfers was suspicious as it was not the same payment method he’d talked about with the contractor in person. However, with online payment options such as PayPal, Venmo and Zelle being more popular He didn’t think too about it.
The thing that ultimately turned McKenna off was tone in the message. McKenna is a acquaintance of the contractors in the area, so he stated that the tone of the email didn’t seem like it was intended.
span style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”He’s always been a kind of a man with few phrases,” McKenna said. “And when we received an inquiry for money from a fake imposter we realized this was an extremely wordy email.”
McKenna phoned the contractor, who told him that he hadn’t issued any invoices to date. Following that, he alerted the community — together with an area branch of the FBI.
