How do roofing and home-repair scams work and how can homeowners avoid them?
Home-repair scams are a common, costly fraud, and research on who is most at risk and what prevention works is still emerging.
Covers: This page explains common roofing and home-repair scam tactics, such as storm-chasing, door-to-door pressure, upfront deposits, insurance fraud, and shoddy or unfinished work. It covers warning signs, vetting contractors, contracts and payment practices, and where to report scams; it does not provide legal advice for a specific dispute or step-by-step instructions for committing fraud.
Also answers: How can homeowners avoid roofing and home-repair scams? · What are the warning signs of a roofing scam? · How do storm-chasing contractor scams work? · How to spot a home repair scam?
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Fill in the blank: ?% of scams reported to Citizens Advice involve work not done or done badly
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The short answer
Interpretation AI-prepared starting mapRoofing and home-repair scams are a common and costly category of fraud. In the UK, one in 10 scams reported to Citizens Advice involve fraudsters charging for work not done, or done badly, with homeowners losing thousands of pounds (BBC News). Research on fraud more broadly finds that the psychological mechanisms scammers use to lure victims, who is more susceptible, and which preventive and reporting measures actually work are only beginning to be studied, and that effective counter-fraud work requires coordination across government, financial institutions, educators, nonprofits and law enforcement (Hanoch et al.). Separately, banking data can reveal early behavioural signs of declining financial capacity — such as more PIN reset requests, more reported fraud cases, more lost or stolen cards, and less online banking activity — which matters because reduced financial capacity can make someone more exposed to exploitation (Trendl et al.).123
- Evidence 10
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Be the first to voteIn brief
One in 10 scams reported to Citizens Advice involve charging for work not done, or done badly, costing homeowners thousands of pounds.1
Evidence-backedScammers rely on psychological mechanisms to lure victims, and research on who is susceptible and what reduces compliance is still emerging.2
Evidence-backedEarly signs of declining financial capacity — more PIN resets, more reported fraud, more lost cards, less online banking — can accompany heightened financial vulnerability, though the measured differences are small.3
Evidence-backedCounter-fraud efforts are described as needing coordination across government, financial institutions, educators, nonprofits and law enforcement, so reporting is part of a wider system.2
Interpretation
At a glance
The picture in numbers
Live · updated just now
10%
10 in every 100
The evidence behind it
3 sources- Other studies and data2
- Background1
Published in 2025 and 2026
| Source | Kind | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Roofing scammers con homeowners out of thousands of pounds | Background | 2026 |
| The Scammers' Psychological Warfare: A Call to Arms. | Other studies and data | 2025 |
| Early Behavioral Markers of Loss of Financial Capacity. | Other studies and data | 2025 |
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No one has added to this page yet. Firsthand experience, a newer study or a different reading of the numbers would show up here, credited to you.
Before you decide
Which fits you?
Pick the situation closest to yours. Each answer says what it rests on.
If you are arranging roofing or home-repair work and want to judge the risk
treat a request to pay for work not yet done, or a job later found to be done badly, as the pattern behind a large share of reported scams — one in 10 scams reported to Citizens Advice — and be cautious about paying ahead of completed work.1
Evidence-backedIf you are helping an older relative or someone whose financial activity has recently changed
watch for signs such as more PIN reset requests, more reported fraud cases, more lost or stolen cards and less online banking activity, since these accompanied heightened financial vulnerability in one study — while remembering the measured differences were small and the study was not about home repair.3
Evidence-backedIf you are deciding whether a particular anti-scam measure or prevention programme is worth relying on
treat it as unproven for now: research on which educational and preventive programmes reduce compliance, and which policies safeguard the public, is described as just emerging.2
Evidence-backedIf you or someone you know has been approached or defrauded
report it rather than treating it as a private loss, because effective counter-fraud work is described as depending on coordination among consumer bodies, financial institutions, government, educators and law enforcement.2
InterpretationThe full story · 3 chapters
01
How roofing and home-repair scams work
AI summary:One in 10 scams reported to Citizens Advice involve charging for work not done or done badly, costing homeowners thousands.
Evidence-backed: The clearest documented figure is that one in 10 scams reported to Citizens Advice relate to fraudsters charging for work not done, or done badly, and that homeowners have been conned out of thousands of pounds (BBC News). This places home-repair fraud among the more frequently reported scam types, and shows that the harm is not only money paid for nothing but also money paid for defective work.1
Evidence-backed: Beyond that figure, the sources do not describe the mechanics of specific tactics such as storm-chasing, door-to-door pressure, upfront deposits or insurance fraud. What the fraud research does say is that scammers use identifiable psychological mechanisms to lure potential victims, and that understanding who is more susceptible is an emerging field rather than a settled one (Hanoch et al.).2
02
Who may be more exposed
AI summary:Banking records can show small early signs of declining financial capacity, which may accompany greater vulnerability to pressure.
Evidence-backed: Banking records can show early behavioural markers of declining financial capacity: compared with a control group, one donor group showed more PIN reset requests (difference 0.002, 95% CI 0.002–0.003), more reported fraud cases (for example, animal charity difference 0.0003, 95% CI 0.0002–0.0003), more lost or stolen credit or debit cards (difference 0.005, 95% CI 0.004–0.006), increased charity spending (difference 1.1 percentage points, 95% CI 0.5–1.7 pp) and fewer monthly online banking logins (difference −1.0, 95% CI −1.1 to −0.8) (Trendl et al.).3
Interpretation: These differences are small and come from a study of financial capacity, not of home-repair fraud, so they do not identify who will be targeted by a roofer. Their relevance is directional: a decline in attention to finances can accompany heightened financial vulnerability, which is the kind of situation in which a pressured doorstep or phone solicitation may be harder to resist (Trendl et al.).3
03
Prevention and reporting: what is known and what is not
AI summary:Evidence on which anti-scam measures work is still emerging, and counter-fraud efforts need coordination across many organisations.
Evidence-backed: The fraud research literature states that work on what educational and preventive programmes can reduce compliance, what therapeutic programmes can help victims, what can be done to increase reporting, and what policies are needed to safeguard the public is just emerging (Hanoch et al.). In other words, there is not yet a settled evidence base telling homeowners which specific anti-scam measures work best.2
Interpretation: The same research argues that fighting fraud requires uniting private and not-for-profit organisations, education providers, financial institutions, government entities, grassroots organisations, international organisations and law enforcement (Hanoch et al.). For a homeowner, the practical implication is that reporting to a consumer body or the authorities is part of a wider system rather than a private matter — but the sources here do not name specific reporting bodies or describe what happens after a report.2
How do you usually find a contractor for home repairs?
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What to remember
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One in scams reported to Citizens Advice involve charging for work not done, or done badly, costing homeowners thousands of pounds.
Scammers rely on psychological mechanisms to lure victims, and research on who is susceptible and what reduces compliance is still emerging.
Early signs of declining financial capacity — more PIN resets, more reported fraud, more lost cards, less online banking — can accompany heightened financial vulnerability, though the measured differences are small.
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- 1Roofing scammers con homeowners out of thousands of poundsBBC NewsPublished Oct 11, 2026Checked Oct 12, 2026
“One in 10 scams reported to Citizens Advice relate to fraudsters charging for work not done, or done badly.”
- 2The Scammers' Psychological Warfare: A Call to Arms.Psychological science in the public interest : a journal of the American Psychological Society (Hanoch et al.)Published Dec 1, 2025Checked Oct 12, 2026
“psychological research on what renders some individuals more susceptible to fraudulent solicitations, what mechanisms scammers use to lure potential victims, what therapeutic programs can help victims, what educational/preventive programs can reduce compliance, what can be done to increase reporting, and what policies are needed to safeguard the public is just emerging. To address this pressing social problem, this article has several goals. First, it is designed to provide readers with state-of-the-art insights into fraud research: what has been done thus far and what is urgently missing. Its second purpose is to highlight the urgency of the problem and encourage researchers to conduct relevant research in their domain of expertise. Our primary goal, however, is to reach beyond the academic sphere. To fight fraud, we must unite forces with private and not-for-profit organizations, education providers, financial institutions, government entities, grassroots organizations, international organizations, law enforcement agencies, and many more. To that end, we hope this article draws the attention of a wide range of stakeholders and encourages collaborations that produce direct action.”
- 3Early Behavioral Markers of Loss of Financial Capacity.JAMA network open (Trendl et al.)Published Jun 2, 2025Checked Oct 12, 2026
“Signs of heightened financial vulnerability in the donor group compared with the control group included an increase in the frequencies of PIN (personal identification number) reset requests (difference, 0.002 [95% CI, 0.002-0.003]), fraud cases (eg, animal charity difference, 0.0003 [95% CI, 0.0002-0.0003]), and lost or stolen credit or debit cards reported (difference, 0.005 [95% CI, 0.004-0.006]) and increased spending on charity (difference, 1.1 pp [95% CI, 0.5-1.7 pp]). In addition, the donor group exhibited reduced attention to finances compared with the control group via decreased online banking activity (difference in number of monthly online banking logins, -1.0 [95% CI, -1.1 to -0.8]).Conclusions and relevanceThis study highlighted the financial behaviors and vulnerabilities associated with declining financial capacity, such as a decrease in activity across multiple domains of daily life. These findings illustrate how banking data can reveal early behavioral signs and financial harms associated with financial capacity loss.”
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AI-prepared Starting Map from live research.
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“Who may be more exposed” rests on one independent source
A second, independent source that confirms or challenges it would make this part more reliable.
“Prevention and reporting: what is known and what is not” rests on one independent source
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Open questions
What specific warning signs do homeowners report noticing before a roofing or home-repair scam — doorstep approaches, storm-damage claims, deposit demands, or something else?
No answers yet
Which vetting steps (licences, references, written quotes, insurance checks) have actually protected readers, and which turned out to be insufficient?
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How do payment practices — deposits, staged payments, paying on completion — change the outcome when work is unfinished or defective?
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Where did readers report a suspected scam, and what response did they get from consumer bodies, insurers or police?
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How often, and by what route, have victims recovered money or had defective work put right?
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