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Storms: watch out for repair scams
After the storms that hit France, craftsmen can offer their services to disaster victims. They sometimes raise their prices or are fake professionals. – (France 2)
After the storms that hit France, craftsmen can offer their services to disaster victims. They sometimes raise their prices or are fake professionals.
After the damage caused by the storms, some craftsmen took advantage of it to raise prices and defraud individuals. In the English Channel, a resident’s chimney was hastily straightened and protected by a simple tarpaulin. The intervention, which lasted around an hour, was billed at 1,200 euros. The man did not know the craftsman who intervened and had found his number on the Internet.
Do not respond to spontaneous canvassing
Sometimes, fake professionals take advantage of the population’s distress to defraud individuals. The police are calling for vigilance. “If we have damage, we call a craftsman that we know or that we have identified (…) who has his card, who has his equipment“, advises Commander Barbara Klisnick, Chief of Staff of the Channel National Police. She recommends not responding to spontaneous canvassing. This type of scam is common after a storm. In 2022, in the Somme, the gendarmerie had already warned the victims.