TEXAS, USA — The Better Business Bureau is warning homeowners of scammers posing as contractors who are taking advantage of the cold weather from the past few days.
Residents have been experiencing power outages and ruptured pipes among other weather-related issues during this arctic blast.
This is usually the time the Better Business Bureau see more unethical contractors that they call "Storm Chasers".
And these chasers have some red flags to look out for.
"Anytime somebody approaches you, whether it's a contractor, whether it's a service provider, that's always kind of a red flag," Devin Benavides, Director of Partnerships of Community and Engagement at the Better Business Bureau said. "You want to research your service providers, see what their method of operation if reaching out to you is something that they will do a lot of times they will not, they wait for you to reach out to them. So if someone's reaching out to you claiming to be a service provider, whether it's gas or electricity or internet or something like that, that's probably a red flag. Contractors that are requiring a significant deposit, 50% or more of the total estimate from you, and then you know, the date gets postponed and then it keeps getting postponed and pushed further and further out and communication comes to a halt, you know, those are all really big red flags."
Contacting your insurance company and documenting all home damages so that you know what your insurance covers should be one of the first steps you do if you find yourselves with a weather-related issue.
Before reaching out to an independent contractor, make sure you do some research, one way is to visit bbb.org/scamtracker where you can search similar scams that have been reported. While on the website, you can also as find a trustworthy business that isn't a scam.
To learn more you can visit bbb.org.