Consumer Alert
The recent tornado outbreak in the south is already taking a heavy toll — but scammers see it as a chance to take even more. Tornadoes can come out of the blue, followed by scammers ready to “help” you with clean up or repairs, or find a new place to rent. More than anything, they’re ready to help themselves to your money.
Unlicensed contractors flock to disaster areas, making big promises and charging even bigger prices. Here are ways to help you spot and avoid clean-up and repair scams.
- Check them out. Before you pay anyone to do any work, ask for IDs, licenses, and proof of insurance. Don’t believe any promises that aren’t in writing.
- Never pay by wire transfer, gift card, cryptocurrency, or in cash. And never make the final payment until the work is done and you’re satisfied.
- Guard your personal information. Only scammers will say they’re a government official and then demand money or your credit card, bank account, or Social Security number.
- Know that FEMA doesn’t charge application fees. If someone wants money to help you qualify for FEMA funds, that’s probably a scam.
- Watch out for rental listing scams. Avoid people who tell you to wire money or ask for security deposits or rent before you’ve met or signed a lease.
- Bookmark Dealing with Weather Emergencies. If a weather event or disaster affects you, come back to this page for more advice on recovery and information about your rights.
- Spread the word. Share the FTC’s Picking Up the Pieces after a Disaster infographic and social media image in your community.
Spot one of these scams? Report it to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. And sign up for consumer alerts to get the latest information on frauds and scams.
Search Terms
Topics
It is your choice whether to submit a comment. If you do, you must create a user name, or we will not post your comment. The Federal Trade Commission Act authorizes this information collection for purposes of managing online comments. Comments and user names are part of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) public records system, and user names also are part of the FTC’s computer user records system. We may routinely use these records as described in the FTC’s Privacy Act system notices. For more information on how the FTC handles information that we collect, please read our privacy policy.
The purpose of this blog and its comments section is to inform readers about Federal Trade Commission activity, and share information to help them avoid, report, and recover from fraud, scams, and bad business practices. Your thoughts, ideas, and concerns are welcome, and we encourage comments. But keep in mind, this is a moderated blog. We review all comments before they are posted, and we won’t post comments that don’t comply with our commenting policy. We expect commenters to treat each other and the blog writers with respect.
We don't edit comments to remove objectionable content, so please ensure that your comment contains none of the above. The comments posted on this blog become part of the public domain. To protect your privacy and the privacy of other people, please do not include personal information. Opinions in comments that appear in this blog belong to the individuals who expressed them. They do not belong to or represent views of the Federal Trade Commission.
When you say things like "Bookmark this page" you are assuming readers know what you are talking about & how to do whatever "bookmark" means. Many of us do not have a lot of computer knowledge/skill. Explanation would be helpful.
thank you ,