Spring is here! Flowers are blooming, trees are budding, and your home improvement project lists are growing. Unfortunately, spring is the time when many scammers, posing as legitimate contractors, offer to help with your contracting needs.

Traveling scam artists arrive every spring to prey on victims, offering fast, inexpensive home repairs, roofing, and paving. Consumers who accept these “deals” sometimes end up paying thousands of dollars for poor quality and/or unnecessary home repairs.

The convenience of hiring a door-to-door contractor may save time, money, and energy, but often the “good deal” is not good or not a deal, and will cost you more. Do your research and find a legitimate contractor.  

Among other useful tips, this month’s Scam Spotter outlines ways to protect yourself from contract scammers. 

Thinking about building a deck or a patio or cleaning out your gutters? It might make sense to hire someone rather than to do the job yourself. But finding a good contractor is important since a home improvement project gone wrong can cost you big time.

Steer clear of hiring the first contractor you come across. While there are legitimate door-to-door contractors selling home repairs, don’t let the ease of hiring these folks eliminate your due diligence. While the idea of a no-hassle, no waiting to be fit into a schedule, I’ll do it now pitch may tempt you, hiring the wrong contractor can cost you more than money; it can lead to delays, sub-par work, and even legal problems. 

READ MORE HERE

What Is Your Liability for Fraudulent Charges?

How much you could lose as a result of fraudulent charges on your credit card depends on how soon you notify your bank.

If you:

1. report your missing or stolen card before any transactions are made you won't be responsible for any losses.
2. if you report the incident within two days of realizing fraudulent charges, your total losses are limited to $50.
3. report within 60 calendar days after you notice the fraudulent charges, the maximum loss can be $500.
4. wait longer than 60 days after the bank statement is sent to you, there's no limit on how much you could lose.

"After 60 calendar days, you could be on the hook for all fraudulent charges," says Elliott Appel, founder and financial planner at Kindness Financial Planning in Madison, Wisconsin. "This is why it's really important to monitor your transactions and report any fraudulent charges as soon as possible."

It can take up to 90 days for your bank to research and resolve any fraudulent charges. During that time, you may be given a temporary credit for missing funds.

Read more about credit card fraud here.

Time to Check Your Annual Credit Report!

Federal law allows each person free access to their credit report from the three major credit bureaus three times a year. But there is free weekly access through the end of 2022. Even if you don’t take advantage of the weekly free access, you should check your report (not your credit score) at least once a year. 

It’s easy and important to do. Click here to get all the information on how to get your free credit report.

Reminder, make sure you go to the correct site as there are many look-alike websites.

The link to the correct website can be found here. 

Do you suspect you've been scammed or exploited? Report it to us by calling our Fraud Hotline.

Contact

The Denver DA's

FRAUD HOTLINE

720.913.9179

We offer FREE presentations on how to protect yourself from fraud and scams. Call to schedule "Stand Up Against Fraud" to learn about scams happening in our area.

Contact:

Maro Casparian| amc@denverda.org

720-913-9036