Scam Type
Home Improvement Scam
Business Name Used
Tarmac Paving
Date Reported
Sep 16, 2022
Victim Postal Code
82009
Total Dollars Lost
0
Scam Description
A man offering to install an asphalt driveway misled and took advantage of my elderly parents.
My parents ended up paying thousands more for an asphalt driveway than they agreed to pay in an apparent scam that seems to have been repeated in multiple states.
A man showed up at their house while my 72-year-old mother was home alone and my 73-year-old father was in the hospital. He said he was in the area working on a parking lot and offered to lay down an asphalt driveway for them for $6.50/square foot. He said he was from Omaha. He talked to my father on the phone and convinced him to agree to this deal on the spot from his hospital bed. My father was led to believe that he was getting a great deal using materials left over from another project.
I became concerned about this spur-of-the-moment project and started trying to figure out who this guy was.
A Google search turned up some alarming news stories, including:
Bellvue asphalt scam leads to contractor’s arrest
https://www.wowt.com/content/news/Bellevue-asphalt-scam-ends-in-contractors-arrest-571232461.html
and
Man accused of running paving scam is at it again, Waltham Police say
https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/i-team-waltham-paving-scam-cornelius-stanley/
Believing my parents were in the process of being scammed, I called the police. An officer went to my parents’ house. I was at another location. The man confirmed that he is the same man from the Bellvue news article and said that issue had been resolved. The officer talked to me on the phone, saying that since my mom had signed the contract agreeing to pay $6.50/square foot for the asphalt driveway and the work was underway, there was nothing to be done about it.
The contract didn’t include a total price estimate, just the $6.50/square foot quote my father had agreed to, and the man said he would do measurements and give a final price upon completion of the project. I asked if my parents could be billed rather than paying on the spot to ensure that everything was sorted out properly and was told that payment was due upon completion.
The police officer left, the work was completed, and my mother was given a bill for $7,800, which she paid. The invoice indicated that the work measured 1,368 square feet. I measured the driveway later and it is nowhere near that size. The asphalt covers an area that is about 37 feet by 12 feet. At $6.50/square foot, that works out to $2,886. While my father didn’t have the exact measurements of his driveway when he talked to Cornelius Stanley from his hospital bed, what he was expecting to pay was nowhere near the amount of the final bill.