Joel Goldenberg – The Suburban LJI Reporter

Côte St. Luc residents pleaded with the city council to use its bylaws to counter scammers who go door to door offering services and fleecing residents of their money.

Resident Nathalie Guitta, speaking at the Nov. 13 council meeting, cited Bylaw 2470, Article 7.1 regarding solicitation, “selling products and services on the public domain, door to door.”

“In September, I called you personally, a roofing company destroyed numerous homeowners’ roofs,” Guitta told Mayor Mitchell Brownstein. “How could we enforce this bylaw? How can we protect the citizens of CSL so that this doesn’t happen again in the spring? They will come back. There are six homeowners that are probably going to start a lawsuit against them. This is long from over. A lien was placed on a house on Davies six days after they got their bill, and four days after that they got a 60-day notice that Revenue Quebec is auctioning off their house.”

Mayor Mitchell Brownstein responded that the city needs to communicate as best it can “that there are scammers out there of all types, and you can be scammed in so many ways, including the way these people did, and it is illegal. We need to provide more information to educate people. It’s really tough to catch a scammer if a resident lets them in.”

Guitta said the scammers can be seen on her Ring camera.

“I didn’t call them, they came to the door. They seem very legitimate, the give you a reasonable quote, they make a hole in your roof and, boom, $83,000. They say you have structural and mould problems and they did that to six other CSL homeowners.”

Brownstein said that could result in a criminal or civil suit between the residents and the company.

“Just don’t answer your door, or if it’s the phone, hang up,” he added.

Councillor Steven Erdelyi said that with Artificial Intelligence, scammers will become an even bigger problem.

“It happened at my day job — someone pretended to be me and got someone to purchase gift cards,” he pointed out. “Try to be careful.”

Guitta responded that “these guys are professionals. They’re bikers, they’re dangerous and they’re going to come back!”

Brownstein said that “what can be done is call the police, call Public Security.”

“The city should be doing more to protect its citizens,” Guitta said.

“When we know about it, we’ll stop them,” Brownstein said.

Another resident, Ayala Antel, told Brownstein a company representative came to her door and claimed he was from Hydro-Québec.

“I asked for paperwork and they had none. It got heated and he dropped the F-bomb on me. That’s when I called CSL security, nobody answered, I called you up because they were not disappearing.”

Regarding the advice not to answer the door, “you have to understand, these people are very professionally savvy in playing with your mind and somehow getting their way onto your property.

“You said ‘call the police.’ I called Station 9, they came. The company couldn’t produce the proof in the end, but they did a number on the police and according to your bylaw, they’re supposed to give a fine of between $100 and $1,000. None of that was done! [They] just let them go! This is not enforcing the bylaw! CSL public security can also enforce the law. Are they?! We need to do a better job of raising awareness of Article 2470.”

Brownstein said the city “needs to look into ways to enforce” the law.

“I got the message. Let’s follow up off line to see what can be done.” n