 Hello and welcome to Under the Dome from TownMeetingTV. My name is Bobby Lucier, and it's July 14th, 2023. Earlier this week, many communities in Vermont experienced devastating flooding caused by severe rainstorms. TownMeetingTV has been using its outlets to the best of our ability to get critical information out to those affected. There's so much important and potentially life-saving information to be shared right now, and one slice of that information is about the scams and fraudulent activity that are currently targeting Vermonters and taking advantage of natural disaster recovery efforts right now. So to learn a little bit more about those scams and how you can identify them and avoid them, we're joined by Vermont's Attorney General, Charity Clark, who has some important guidance to identify those scams and for you to protect yourself and others and your resources. So Attorney General Clark, thank you so much for joining us today. Well, thanks for having me. So can you tell us a little bit about the scams that your office is seeing out there right now? I know your office has been reporting on scams more generally across the state that you're seeing, but specifically how they're targeting those recovering from floods. Sure. So keep in mind that scammers are just looking for convenient ways to steal your money. So any opportunity that presents itself that might be effective, they're going to take. So with a natural disaster, here are some scams that you need to be in the lookout for. First is someone pretending to be a charity that's raising money to help with relief efforts. So there are several ways you can kind of protect yourself from the scam. The main way is to independently verify the legitimacy of any kind of charity. So you're going online, you're Googling and finding the way to donate that way rather than responding to a text, an email, a phone call, or even someone in person who's trying to get you to donate to this supposed charity. You can also look up on charity navigator, different charities to see if they are legitimate. So another charity, another, excuse me, scam that's going to be popular in this time is a fake government agency scam. So this is someone pretending to be FEMA and they are trying to get information from you like your social security number or your birthday, supposedly to help you fill out a form to get relief from the flood, but in actuality it's the scammer. So again, you want to make sure that wherever you're applying for aid it's legitimate and you are finding that form yourself independently, not responding to a text or an email that comes your way. But I want to highlight one particular scam that we're just doing a scam alert about today. We have received an uptick in the utility disconnection scam. This is a scam that's frankly pretty popular anyway. That's where someone is contacting you and saying, we're going to disconnect your electricity unless you pay your supposed outstanding bill. So what you do in that case is you hang up the phone and you contact your utility to check your account yourself rather than responding and remember that scammers are always going to take advantage of emotional times to try to steal your money. So that's what's happening here is we're all concerned. We want to help. We're worried for ourselves. We need the electricity to run our fans and our dehumidifiers and we're concerned about this electricity shut off. Even if we know our bill is up to date, it feels right to just pay it and be done with it. But we're telling you there is a scam going on right now that's had an uptick and so to be on the lookout for that. Right. So what should folks do if they think they've identified a scam? Is there a way to report it through your office? How does that work? We encourage people to report scams to our office. The consumer assistance program can be reached at 1-800-649-2424. You can also find us online. It's a-g-o dot vermont dot gov slash cap consumer assistance program cap is the moniker. And that is really helpful because, for example, the scam that I just told you about we know about that scam because people contacted our office and let us know about it. That gives us a chance to put the word out, put out a scam alert and let folks know that there's an uptick in the scam and to be on the lookout for it. So even if you don't fall for the scam and don't lose any money, it's really helpful for us to get that information. So definitely call the consumer assistance program. If you have been the victim of a scam, it is really important to call the consumer assistance program. They might be able to help you get your money back depending on the medium you use to pay and you have to call right away. We really can't be helpful after a day, maybe two. And this is a great time to remind folks that the way to pay for things that has the most consumer protections is to pay by credit card, cash, cryptocurrency, gift cards. Those are not easy to get back after you make the payment. So credit cards have the benefit of a lot of built-in consumer protections. Gotcha. And what is the process that your office kind of uses to be able to get that money back? What does that look like? Well, we actually have relationships. We've been doing this for over 40 years. So we have relationships with certain banks or contacts at Amazon or credit card companies or wherever. So we can kind of take advantage of those contacts. We have an expert in our office, an investigator who has a financial background and she's just incredible and can be useful. But I don't want to set high expectations. I mean, it is very unusual for us to be able to get the money back after a scam unless it's paid by credit card. But of course, scammers know that. So they're trying to get you to pay in other ways. I'd like to make a special note about gift cards. When I talk about gift cards, I'm not talking about a gift card to a particular store. I'm talking about gift cards that are like Visa or Mastercard. And what a scammer will do is say, I want you to pay me for whatever thing in gift cards and they'll send you to the store and then they'll have you read the codes on the back. And once they have those codes, it's as good as cash. You cannot get the money back. So no one legitimate is going to ask you to pay in gift cards. So if someone's asking you to pay in gift cards, I need to know no additional information to tell you it's a scam. Gift cards are for gifts. That's our little motto at the consumer assistance program and keep that in mind. Right. Yeah. And so, do you know, does your office know where these scams are coming from? Are they based in Vermont or are they typically from other places? In all the years that I have been working with scams and fighting scams, which is many years now, I can't think of one scam I know of that originated in Vermont and I can only think of a handful that originated in this country. Scams are originating overseas. They're incredibly hard to trace. They're incredibly hard to shut down, especially for Vermont. So our best tool is to fight scams by educating people, which is another reason why it's so important to make those scam reports. That's how we educate people. And also why I'm so grateful that you had me on today so we could try to spread the word about these particular scams that folks need to be on the lookout for. Right. Yeah, we're happy to work with you to get this information out there because we know it's so important. It's great to see that the office has sprung into action to spread the word about this issue. How is the flooding otherwise impacted your office and the work that you do? I know you all are typically busy with a lot of other work. How is the flooding impacted your work? Well, of course, we're the lawyer to the state. So we have lawyers who work at the Agency of Transportation, for example. So we're already doing work and we'll, I'm sure, for many months be supporting work done in those agencies. And then, of course, we're on the lookout for scams. We also have resources for folks who are looking to hire a contractor. And I'd love to take a moment just to orient people to what some of those tips we have might be. Obviously, many folks in Vermont now have suffered damages to their homes and might be looking for a contractor to help them with their home repairs. We have found at the Consumer Assistance Program that consistently every year when we look back and identify what the top complaints are about businesses, home improvement contractors always come up in the top five. It's very common in part because a lot of money is at stake. And so there are just some best practices to put into place that could help you have a good experience. The first is that there is now a requirement that home improvement contractors register. This doesn't apply to the smaller contractors, but contractors who have a contract that's worth $10,000 or more have to register with the Secretary of State's office, the Office of Professional Regulation or Responsibility. So I would consult that list and see if your contractor has done what they're supposed to do. There's another registry that folks should consult, and that actually can be found on my website, the Attorney General's website. And that is a home improvement fraud registry that lists all of the contractors who've been committed of the crime of home improvement fraud. So that's another useful piece of information for you as you hire your contractor. Here's my number, if I could pick one thing, I think this is my number one tip. Do not pay up front. It's okay to put down a deposit. Obviously, your contractor will probably need money to buy supplies and things like that, but don't pay up front. Pay as you go. One of the complaints that we frequently see in this arena is a complaint that the contractor started the work and never finished or took the money and then never completed the work. So that is my number one tip. Close second is always have a contract. The contract is good, not just for the consumer who's hiring the contractor. It's good for the contractor as well. It's a way to communicate, here's our expectation about what's gonna happen here. This is the scope of work. This is the price. This is the timing on what's gonna be paid when and how long this work is gonna take to be done. So it's just a really helpful way for everybody to know what's going on and to move forward with that expectation on both sides. So those are some tips for you on home improvement. I know that your office in Montpeliers, just right next to the state house, that's right. Do you know, I know it's early on. Do you know when, if it's anytime soon, you'll be able to return to that office or what the state of that office is right now? They're working really hard to restore that office to its former glory of earlier this week. I don't know what the time frame is. I think the damage is still being assessed on that building and a number of buildings in Montpeliers. We of course are eager to get back and be with our colleagues. After two years of the pandemic, I don't relish my time at home. I like being with my colleagues in Montpeliers, but really it's so early. We don't know yet what the extent of the damage will be. So we'll be waiting for news on that next week. Is there any, do you anticipate any like disruptions or are there any records or anything from your office that are in jeopardy? No, from the flooding. No, I mean, we had this two year experiment, I guess you would call it. Where we were working remotely, the Attorney General's office worked remotely until mid-summer, I think last year. So we literally for over two years were 100% remote. I mean, people went into the office and could go into the office towards the end of that, but we were remote. So we have already learned how to navigate the waters. I think our self-described IT guy was in the office most of that time and probably a couple of others. But we already have sort of mastered how to do this remotely. We've also found there's a lot of benefit to being in person. And so in addition to knowing that I'm gonna lose all my plants in my office, I really miss all of my colleagues and getting to see them in person. I also should note that I've been invited to throw out the first pitch of the Lake Monsters game next week. And I was practicing my throw with some of the colleagues on our lunch breaks. And so now I'm on my own and I have to ask my neighbors to help me practice my throw, so I missed that too. Boy, well, best of luck with that first pitch. That sounds fun, and it's good to know that the office doesn't, that there's nothing terribly devastating in terms of your work being able to continue remotely, albeit with less of the benefit of in-person work. So thank you, Attorney General Charity Clark for joining us today to share some vital information about scams, praying on those in our community, recovering from flooding impacts. Is there anything else that you want to add for folks that folks should know that you haven't mentioned already? Well, I would love to say a couple words about price gouging. Price gouging is another issue that comes up when there's a disaster. And I wanted to say that Vermonters really take care of each other, and all sort of pull together in a crisis. And so price gouging is something we don't see very often. But it does come up. Price gouging is illegal in Vermont under the Consumer Protection Act. So if anyone is out in the marketplace shopping and they feel like, wow, this jug of water was a lot cheaper last week, they should make a report to the Consumer Assistance Program so that we can look into that. And that number again is 1-800-649-2424. That's great to know. Thank you so much, A.G. Clark. And thank you for tuning into Town Meeting TV under the dome, your front row seat of Vermont's democracy. For more programming from Town Meeting TV for other episodes of Under the Dome, you can visit ch17.tv or subscribe to the Town Meeting TV YouTube channel. Thank you so much and so long.