You've Been Catfished: Hiring Fake Repairmen Off the Internet

When something breaks, you hire a repairman. However, repairman are expensive. No one wants to waste thousands of dollars by hiring a contractor, so individuals seek advice from friends and family. If friends and family don't have expertise, you take to the internet! The internet is a wonderful place, having many different sites. One site in particular allows you to buy and sell things for cheap, and find local persons in the area that are "qualified" as service repairmen. This site is craigslist. You browse around, and find a repairman that charges a decent price, and you call him up and hire him. You have complete faith and trust in this person, since they listed themselves as "Professional" and you have no doubt in your mind that they will do just as good a job  as the service companies that cost a fortune.

A group of men arrive at your house, you invite them in and have them take a look at the problem. They give you an estimation and a timeframe for it to be completed, for example two weeks, and you write them a check, and pat yourself on the back for being responsible and not getting "ripped off"...

Well, two weeks have gone by. A month has passed, and these workmen still say they are not finished with the job. You start to question their work, and also begin to question whether you have hired the right people for the task. Then, your worst nightmare happens: they stop showing up. You paid them for the job, yet the job is unfinished. You call the man that put the ad on craigslist, and the number has been disconnected. You call the police and file charges. You then hire a well-known company to come out and take a look at the job. They say the problem was exasperated by the previous workers, since they wanted you to pay more money or they just had no idea what they were doing. You accept this as reality, and realize that you should have hired the reputable company in the first place.

This is the LAST thing you want to happen to you, but it happened in the Orlando area, and happens frequently around the country. Not only do you need to protect your kids from the dangers of the internet, but you also have to protect yourself and take some safety precautions of your own. If something doesn't seem reputable, chances are it's not. This is not to dissuade you from using sites like this. just one thing you have to realize is that anyone can post anything on the internet.  This is what makes the show "Catfish" so entertaining to watch since it's about people posting pictures of other people that don't look like them on their online dating profiles. Recognize you've been catfished, and hire a reputable serviceman from a reputable company that won't take your money and run.