Named “travelers” by law-enforcement officials, they spend their winters in the south preying on people, primarily the elderly.
But as the weather has warmed up, they have arrived in Colorado.
The door-to-door con men tell their vulnerable targets, mostly stay-at-home folks who are elderly, that their roofs are in terrible shape, the foundations of their homes are crumbling and that their driveways need repair.
They say they can do the repairs for reduced prices but then jack up the fees and demand payment, often in a threatening and menacing manner.
They take thousands of dollars from the homeowners and leave without doing any repairs or using shoddy materials that deteriorate almost immediately.
On Monday, three Colorado prosecutors — Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey and Jefferson County District Attorney Scott Storey — warned that the travelers are here, often the grandchildren of the travelers who perpetrated the same frauds 40 years ago in the Denver metro area.
“Spring has come to Denver, but so has the traveling con man we see every spring,” said Morrissey. “Last month, we had a group of con artists who go by the name of Tri-State Construction who contacted an 84-year-old woman. They said she needed the cracks in her sidewalk repaired for $39. They eventually convinced her she needed her foundation sealed. They tried to get $45,000 from her and took nearly $10,000 eventually.”
He said the “repairs” made by the group was a little bit of paint on the foundation of the woman’s home. They also took her to two banks to try to get the money they claimed she owed.
Morrissey said that his office is studying surveillance photos taken at the bank of the con men.
But he and the other prosecutors said that the cases are often hard to make because the con men flee almost as soon as they appear.
“The only way you can prevent these types of crimes is to say no to them,” said Morrissey.
Storey said the elderly are especially vulnerable.
“These guys are organized. They know what they are doing,” said Storey. “They say the wood on your house has deteriorated. They will convince you this has to be done. And they are very aggressive, and they will want money up front. And the product they may have used is watered-down paint.
“Roofs are perfect for these guys,” Storey added. “I had someone close to me, an 87-year-old, and they said: ‘You have severe roof damage.’ They’ll come back and say, ‘Your roof is in a lot worse shape than we thought it was, and we need more money.’ They will rip you off, and then they are gone.”
Suthers said the door-to-door con men are extremely good — very engaging and very convincing.
He advised that people never deal with salesmen who show up at the front door and offer to fix a housing problem or let them into the home, where they can steal purses or identifying materials.
The prosecutors said that the types of scams include roofing, sidewalk-crack repair, car-dent repair, home siding, replacement windows and home-foundation repair.
To get into your home, they will claim to be cable contractors or utility-department inspectors.
They have several lines to convince you they are good people, claiming they are working down the street and actually naming a neighbor you know. Or they may say they have material “left over” from a nearby job and give you a very low price for repair work.
The prosecutors said that if you do spot a traveling con artist, report him or her immediately to local law enforcement. They also ask area residents to watch out for older neighbors who might be threatened or intimidated by “the travelers.”
The Denver district attorney’s fraud line is 720-913-9179, and the Denver Police Department can be reached at 720-913-2000. AARP ElderWatch, which works with the Colorado attorney general, can be reached at: 800-222-4444.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
