Seems Legit?

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

A guy rang our doorbell late this morning saying approximately "Hey, wanna buy a driveway?"
the story being something about working a utility job near by and having left-over asphalt.

I'll you you right now, though I feel like an idiot doing so, that I talked him down to half his price and did a hand-shake agreement on it. Then I was confused that he drove off in a hurry. When was he coming back to do the work? No, I didn't give him any money; and no, he's not likely to come back. He was probably making as graceful an exit as he could after my taking too long asking him questions.

My friends quickly edjumicated me that the "left-over asphalt" scam is actually one of the 'oldest scams' out there (for certain hyperbolic definitions of 'oldest'), and pointed me to http://www.apa-mi.org/asphalt_scam_press_release.php (and more generally, https://www.google.com/search?q=left-over+asphalt+scam ).

I called him into to Somerville non-emergency police line, and am posting here in case any of you are as nearly-gullible as I am. If you get the same visitor, you can call him in more promptly than I did and give the PD more useful information.

Let my close-call-stupidity save those of you as gullible as I am. The rest of you, who are too smart to fall for this, be nice.

[tag this "local scams"]

Comments

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Thanks for sharing this, and for reporting him to the police! Glad you didn't get taken for $$.

[missdimple.livejournal.com]

What did he look like? I had a guy come to my door, act surprised to see *me* and then make some lame excuse about the streets being all close together as to why he was at the wrong address.

Made me wonder if he was casing the place to see if there was someone home during the day. :/

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

Big guy, tattoos on his wrist and neck. If I had been thinking it was sketchy at the time, I would have noted what the tattoos were. :derp:

[gentlescholar.livejournal.com]

I had that offer once, and just told him he'd have to ask the owner, and he went away.
I didn't realize it was a scam. Thanks.

[ratushebarl.livejournal.com]

Just to muddy the waters, I had a similar thing happen last summer that seemed legit: my next-door neighbors got their driveway repaved, and the day before the asphalt was laid, the contractors knocked on my door and asked if since they were bringing the truck anyway, they could bring extra for me.

OTOH, they were in uniform with marked trucks, had been working at the neighbor's house for a couple of days, didn't ask for cash, and measured. I didn't go for it -- the quote was more than I had to spare and they weren't bargaining -- but I think it is a thing that actual contractors do.

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

if they are legit, i would imagine they'll have a contract and would take check/credit, they'll tell you the warranty, and they'll use asphalt, not a skim coat, and won't run if you ask them for their card/phone/url :)

as well as a few other things... like actually doing prep, and having equipment, and stuff. the price won't seem "too good to believe" too :)

#

[ron_newman]

I tagged as "home repair" and "crime".

[sparr0.livejournal.com]

I recognize the potential to get actually-scammed, such as them taking money and not doing work, but the web pages you linked and on the first page of that google search seem very shady to me themselves. They are basically saying "Don't let unlicensed people install a cheap driveway for you"...

[notnatalie.livejournal.com]

I just want to say for the record that I had never heard of such a thing....but my friends in Everett did in fact get their driveway paved this way. All legit. I think they saw the guys doing the work on the street and approached them, so it was a different set-up. And I doubt they were dumb enough to pay first, but I also doubt that there was paperwork, etc involved. These guys do it cuz they can pocket some extra cash on the side, and my friends got a relative deal with less hassle then they expected.