Massachusetts homeowners are being warned about a transnational criminal organization accused of operating a sophisticated contracting scam.
The scheme involves fake websites, fake reviews, and fake companies.
The NBC10 Boston Investigators have found dozens of victims around the Boston area. Most are out a few thousand dollars. Some have lost much more.
"Nothing looks like it was done professionally," said Dan Kirshenbaum, showing us where concrete splattered all over the side of his building.
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Kirshenbaum hired Joseph Connors in June to repair the front steps of his condominium in Brookline, Massachusetts. He found the business, Greater Boston Masonry, online through positive Google and Yelp reviews.
"They seemed very nice. They seemed like they knew what they were doing. They said they'd been in business for many years," Kirshenbaum said.
But Kirshenbaum said things quickly changed when a laborer got into a heated exchange about not being paid. The incident was captured on the homeowner's doorbell video.
"They were threatening to hit each other with bricks," he said. "It looked pretty scary and it kind of just spiraled from there."
Kirshenbaum suspected he was being scammed and called the Brookline Police Department.
According to the police report, a detective tied Connors to a masonry scam perpetuated by suspected "Irish Travelers" that operate throughout Massachusetts.
The report also said there was an outstanding warrant for Connors out of Malden.
That warrant is tied to what Connors is accused of after Dan and Lydia Cox hired him to replace their front steps back in May.
"They did all of this in a day," said Lydia Cox, pointing to a large trench dug in front of her home in Malden.
The couple said his crew ended up creating $50,000 worth of damage to their fieldstone foundation.
"What these guys had done was dig underneath those loose stones. And then, of course, they fell out. There's nothing to hold them in," Daniel Cox said.
When Malden police arrested Connors, the only form of identification he had was a picture of an Irish driver's license on his phone.
"The license plate on the truck was revoked. The registration on the truck didn't exist. The license plate on the trailer went to somebody else that, I mean, none of the things that they had were real," Cox said.
Shortly after his arrest, the Greater Boston Masonry website went offline, and so did Connors.
More from our "To Catch a Contractor" series
Malden District Court issued a warrant for his arrest on charges of fraud, defacing/damaging property, and conspiracy. He's now considered a fugitive from justice.
Since our first report in September, the NBC10 Boston Investigators have since connected Connors and his various companies to 11 other fraud victims in the past year by either speaking to the victims or law enforcement.
We've made multiple attempts to contact Connors and his companies by phone and email. The phone numbers provided to police are all disconnected.
A rising trend
"I think in just this month in Massachusetts, I've seen seven come across my desk," said Medford Police Chief Jack Buckley.
Buckley is also president of the Massachusetts Major City Chiefs, which consists of members of the 40 largest police departments in the state. He said the group has been around for years, but its scams have grown more brazen and sophisticated with websites.
However, he said the scheme often starts with something simple, like an unsolicited visit to your home.
"If a contractor knocks on your door and said, 'Hey, I was just in the neighborhood, I have leftover materials,' be on alert. That has generally been a red flag," Buckley said.
Once they are hired, Buckley said they keep finding more issues in need of repair.
"People also inherently want a good deal," Buckley explained. "They get in for a low bid and then just keep asking for more money. It snowballs."
Hughie O'Donoghue and Michael Nevin of Above All Masonry and Construction were ordered to pay $105,000 in restitution after pleading guilty in Concord District Court this month for scamming a 74-year-old Maynard man.
The victim, who asked not to be identified, told us he was grieving the death of his wife and wasn't thinking clearly when O'Donoghue came knocking on his door, offering services to partially repair his roof.
According to the Maynard police report, the town building inspector estimated the cost of services done to his home was, at most, $5,000. The victim ended up paying the workers more than 20 times that amount.
According to the police report, O'Donoghue and Nevin are Irish nationals who came into the United States through Canada "because they are formally known as transnational criminals" and would "probably be denied entry" if they tried to enter through a port like Boston.
The report also says they are known as "Irish Travelers," and the organization has documented cases with law enforcement in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, France and New Zealand.
There was also a warrant for O'Donoghue out of Quincy for allegedly taking $70,000 from an elderly woman and damaging her roof.
A judge required they put a down payment of $30,000 of restitution to the Maynard victim in court in order to be released. Two women associated with Nevin and O'Donoghue paid that in cash while NBC10 Boston waited at the courthouse.
Nevin was released and declined to answer our questions in the parking lot before driving away with the two women. According to court paperwork, there was an "immigration detainer" on O'Donoghue from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, so he remained in custody.
Transnational criminals
Michael Krol, the special-agent-in-charge for Homeland Security Investigations in New England, wouldn't comment on the O'Donoghue or Connors cases, but said this group of Irish nationals is known to federal law enforcement.
"These are scam artists to the core. They will stop at nothing to defraud their victims," he said.
Krol said ICE and HSI have recognized this organized group of men from Ireland and the United Kingdom as "The Traveling Conmen Fraud Group" that operates throughout North America.
"They are driven only by greed and only by money. This is what they do for a living. So being very good at scamming consumers is their job," Krol said.
He said to appear legitimate to consumers, the foreign nationals even go to the trouble of registering their business with state agencies.
Connors had two businesses registered with the Secretary of State's office. Through a records request, we found Connors also had a home improvement contractor's registration that was recently revoked for allegedly taking over $30,000 from an elderly woman in Brockton last year.
Krol said the group transports the money back to the UK using "trade-based laundering." That involves buying expensive jewelry and wearing it on the plane back home.
In hindsight, Kirshenbaum wishes he'd taken a closer look at online reviews for Greater Boston Masonry and Construction, which now appear to be fake.
For instance, he realized all 16 of the five-star reviews were posted in the same month last year, and many of the reviewers are not from the area.
"It wasn't until they left things in an unfinished state that we actually realized what had happened," he said. "When someone comes claiming they can do the work with good reviews and at a reasonable cost, maybe you turn off your scam detectors."
Some of the victims we spoke with never filed police reports because they didn't realize they were part of a larger scam. Law enforcement told us that is essential so they can connect the dots.
