EL CAJON, Calif. (FOX 5/KUSI) — An El Cajon homeowner is raising the alarm about a potential plumbing scam he believes targeted his elderly mother Wednesday.
It’s an interaction caught on Aziz Badra’s Ring camera that was the first red flag in what he believes would have been a scam if he didn’t intervene.
A man comes to the door saying he’s there for a leak or mold inspection from “Master Plumber” claiming he spoke with “Mr. Aziz”.
“He said Mr. Aziz called me and said to come over, which is a complete lie because I’m Aziz,” said Badra, who had never spoken with the man.
Badra says the man showed up to his home while only his sister and elderly mother were there and made his way inside. Over the phone, he told the man he called the police and to leave immediately.
He said when he got home, his mom was on the phone with what he described as a “foreign phone room” where a woman was checking in to see if someone arrived for the mold appointment.
“I started to put two and two together and realized this is just an elderly scam,” Badra said.
Badra also circled back with local company “Master Plumbing and Leak Detection.”
“He said it’s absolutely not one of our people. We get two or three calls a week of people saying did you send someone to our house,” Badra said.
FOX 5/KUSI also spoke with the company’s owner who said similar calls have been frequent for the last four months. He also shared he’s been in business since 2000 and had trademarked the name Master Plumbing.
The man who had showed up at Badra’s house wasn’t driving a company vehicle and had no formal uniform or company logo on his clothing. The owner of Master Plumbing said any reputable company would drive marked vehicles, be in uniform, and have their contractor license number displayed.
Badra made one more call, trying to get the same plumber to show up to another address.
“We did it on purpose because we wanted to make sure we could get his license plate and any additional information and then we confronted him,” Badra said.
At that time, Badra claims the man said he was with another company. As Badra did more research, he said there were different websites and phone numbers, “all pointing in different directions, no contractor license number anywhere, and the story just got more complicated and more suspicious.”
While he’s not sure if the man might have overcharged, or asked for some type of deposit and never returned, or perhaps something else entirely, Badra’s instinct was to share his story with the community so that others can be aware.
“I know people who have been ripped off or scammed as elderly people and I just don’t want to see that happen to anybody else. It could have almost happened to my mom, or worse,” Badra said.
FOX 5/KUSI tried calling “Fullserv Restoration,” the other businesses the man claimed to be with, and the person who answered said they were an entirely different company, but acknowledged him as an employee.
FOX 5/KUSI also visited the Fullserv website, where there is no license number listed.
Badra did file a police report in El Cajon and he plans to report this to the local FBI field office and the district attorney’s office.
