LAKE VIEW, N.Y. — Brianna Deck can still barely see her car after she, like many other Western New Yorkers, were forced to take to Facebook to look for help in plowing their driveways and were instead left with a driveway full of snow and empty pockets.
“It’s a horrible thing to be to be doing,” she said. People are struggling.”
A scammer took her money through Cash App but never showed up to plow her driveway.
“They didn't seem like they were going to scam me,” she said. “I gave him the benefit of the doubt. That was my worst mistake.”
Even though as you can see this was a historic snowfall, Western New Yorkers here in the Lakeview neighborhood and all across the region know this isn’t the last whiteout event we’ll see this season, meaning next time when you're on Facebook or another social media outlet that threat could still be out there.
“They work very hard, and they spend considerable time and resources into cheating people out of their hard-earned money,” said Matt Krueger of the Better Business Bureau.
Krueger says Deck's situation is nothing new, and it’s why he recommends Western New Yorkers look to the Better Business Bureau’s list of accredited services when hiring a plow service and never send money in advance.
“Make sure you understand are you paying it all upfront?” he said. “Are you paying it monthly? Is it paying three separate times? Make sure you understand that. How are you paying?”
That’s advice Deck wishes she knew and wants to pay forward before the next storm hits.
“It would make me feel good that they're not out there doing it to somebody else,” she said.
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