Residents of Montgomery County have been issued a warning by the local Office of Consumer Protection concerning a wave of driveway-paving scams. Homeowners have been falling prey to unlicensed workers offering too-good-to-be-true paving deals, often leading to shoddy, subpar workmanship and, in some cases, services not being completed as promised, with additional, unexpected costs being a cruel surprise.
The uptick in these deceptive practices has caught the attention of County Executive Marc Elrich, who expressed concern for constituents approached, sometimes aggressively, in their own homes. "It's incredibly frustrating to see these kinds of scams resurface again and again, especially when they target people right at their front doors," Montgomery County's Office of Consumer Protection reported Elrich as saying, per Montgomery County's website. "No one should have to deal with intimidation, deception or shoddy work from people pretending to be legitimate businesses."
According to OCP Investigator Lee Glass, scammers have been using a buffet of persuasive techniques to bait homeowners, including but not limited to claims that neighbors have engaged their services and are offering lower prices for cash payments. "These unlicensed contractors and their crews are going door-to-door, pressuring homeowners with various tactics. These include repeated visits, claiming that other neighbors are having work done by them, and often lowering the offered price of the work for cash payment," Glass explained, as per the Montgomery County's website. Warnings have been disseminated to help the public recognize and sidestep such schemes.
The OCP, in collaboration with the Montgomery County Police Department, has been diligently working to identify and stop these fraudulent operations. A resident's report on suspicious activities enabled OCP and MCPD to respond swiftly, leading to the impoundment of a pickup truck, a trailer, and paving equipment linked to the scammers. A day's work was found out by the scam artists, paving more than a dozen driveways in one neighborhood before being caught.
