Scam victim cautions others

Andrew Glazer

COSTA MESA -- It took just one dewy dawn for her to realize she had been

scammed.

The oil smeared onto her driveway by a phony contractor had washed away,

revealing the pits and scars in the blacktop she had payed him $1,300 to

repair.

“It was just the way it was before,” said Dorothy Adams, 75, who owns and

rents four homes on Ford Road in Costa Mesa. “Maybe worse. And now I have

to pay another contractor to break it all up and do it again.”

Costa Mesa police said similar scams pop onto the scene every few years.

The con men often travel back and forth across the country, preying on

people who need work done on their driveways and roofs and are easily

seduced by a seemingly good deal.

“The line is usually that they just did a job around the block and they

have leftover material,” said George Johnson, a civilian investigator

with the Costa Mesa Police Department. “They say they can cut a really

good deal.”

That’s precisely what a man told Adams three weeks ago, pointing to an

exemplary asphalt job across the street he claimed to have completed. He

told Adams and five homeowners they would get a good deal if they all

hired him.

“I didn’t want to be the one to hold everyone back,” she said.

Adams said she did call the Contractors State License Board to determine

whether the man had credentials. The line was busy. She also called the

owner of the well-paved property to verify the job had indeed been the

same contractor’s handiwork. No answer.

Three days after he swept the driveway, apparently shoveled gravel into

holes and smeared a layer of oil over the asphalt, the contractor was off

with $6,500 paid by the neighbors.

Myrlys Williams, a spokeswoman from the Contractors State License Board,

said Adams should have been skeptical when the paver approached her.

“When you’re not seeking their business and they come to you, you ought

to be concerned,” Williams said.

Williams said Adams was right to try to verify the contractor’s license.

But she said people hiring contractors should check at least three

references, have the contractor sign a written agreement and pay no more

than $1,000 or 10% -- whichever is less -- at the start of the project.

Adams said she learned her lesson. She’s promised to speak up at city

council meetings about the scams and hound investigators to get the word

out.

“You can’t back up,” said Adams, wearing a sundress and a frustrated

frown. “But a woman’s got to stand up for herself.”