THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, September 19, 1995 TAG: 9509190069
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RALEIGH LENGTH: Short : 40 lines
Who you gonna call? You might start with the state attorney general's office if anybody claiming to be a ghostbuster knocks on your door.
Con artists are traveling across North Carolina and Virginia, offering bogus home improvement services - like poltergeist extermination - for big bucks, according to a spokesman for Attorney General Mike Easley.
One woman forked over $8,000 to have her attic sprayed for ghosts, then spent $2,000 for a follow-up treatment, said Amy Green, a spokeswoman for Easley.
Another homeowner was been taken for more than $100,000 the last three months, paying $1,900 for a new screen door last week, she said.
The swindlers have amassed possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars, she said.
Con artists have made successful pitches to rid homes of ``brick mites,'' repair supposedly defective roof struts, roof decking and floor joists, and keep chimneys from sliding away from the sides of houses.
``It's all over the state, but it's especially a problem in the west,'' Green said. ``There are a lot of retirees there, and they target the elderly.''
Easley believes a single outfit is behind the schemes, describing it in a news release as ``a large, highly organized network.'' The organization apparently employs several 1-800 numbers and has a large fleet of repair trucks, the Asheville Citizen-Times reported.
``These types of scams are difficult to prosecute,'' Easley said. ``The victims are most often elderly, the repair crews have won their trust and affection, and they rarely complain.'' by CNB