Every once in a while, we each get a phishing call that may push us to say some distasteful words. Scams are all too common, but unfortunately, they are something that is very hard to crack down on, especially when the victims are at their most vulnerable. A report from the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre highlighted that in 2022 fraud and cybercrime accounted for $530 million in victim losses.
On June 13, Marie Nelson, an Oakville senior, knew she had people coming over the next day to repair her driveway. They needed her garage door open in order to complete the job. Unfortunately, the day before, her garage door opener didn't work. Stressed out and in a bit of a panic, she went online to find someone who could fix the opener as soon as possible.
She got 4 quotes, one company called Lux Service said they were from Oakville - they quoted Nelson between $300-$500 to complete the job and said that they could come that day between 1-3 p.m. Nelson was relieved and waited patiently for them to arrive. Close to 3 p.m., she got a phone call from the repairman who said they were running late, to which she replied it was fine as she just needed it done. The repairman didn’t end up coming until 6 p.m.
When he finally came, he walked into the garage and pulled a wire that opened the garage door, which she didn’t know existed, solving the issue of opening her garage door. The repairman then pulled out an unmarked ladder and said that her opener was out of date, but she knew the real problem was that the chain was loose.
Since he was there, she just wanted it fixed, but he was adamant that it needed to be replaced. She insisted that he just fix it and left him alone to complete the job, which took until about 9 p.m. At that point, he had gone ahead and installed a new opener against her will and then demanded $2,915 for the work.
Nelson was shocked at this, but she was intimidated because she was alone and wanted him gone. She paid it without an itemized statement and called up a friend and said, “Don’t say anything, just stay on the line,” When she came back, she saw that the repairman was running around the garage throwing everything in his truck and then he took off.
She noticed that he left a sticker next to the new opener that said “Lux Service,” their website is luxgaragedoors.ca. If you visit it, you’ll find that the website is registered but not available. There is no indication of any business called Lux Service located anywhere in Canada and it is not related to a business of a similar name in California. The phone number on the sticker isn’t associated with any business either.
CTV News Pat Foran did a piece on this and went to the listed address of the company in Vaughan, to which he found no indication of a business. Nelson went to the Police and was told that this was a civil case, not criminal. They told her that police don’t get involved in civil cases and that maybe if she’d called them when he was there, it would have scared the repairman into reducing the price.
There’s a lot of unconnected dots about this for Nelson, but at this point, she just wants a reasonable refund. She was almost in tears explaining her situation to me. Nelson is now working with Customer Protection Ontario in hopes of remediating her situation. Nelson’s goal in spreading this message is to make sure that nobody else falls for scams of this sort.
We got in contact with the Halton Regional Police, who said that they did see a similar home repair scam and put out a recommendation report to avoid scams like this. Instructions in the report include:
- Get recommendations from people you trust.
- If it sounds too good to be true, it likely is.
- Do your research.
- Don’t be pressured to make a quick decision.
- Ensure the contractor is insured.
- Get multiple written estimates.
- Check references.
- Be cautious of unsolicited offers via the phone, or door-to-door.
Put it on Paper
- Work requested and agreed upon.
- Dates – Start, benchmarks, and finish.
- Exact Cost of the project.
- Acquire a receipt.
- Acquire a guarantee/warranty information.
Anyone with information regarding instances of this sort is asked to contact the Regional Fraud Unit at 905-465-8741.