There seems to have been a resurgence in duct cleaning scams on Facebook community groups.

 

They’re a familiar sight to any member of local discussion, garage sale, and events groups; they’re always written similarly, offering large discounts on duct cleaning and HVAC services, usually posted by new group members.

“They’ll create these posts that say ‘unlimited ducts, the first ten people to comment get a special deal, believe my work not my words,’ but they never post a business name, they never post a business number, if you comment they’ll say ‘I’ll PM you.'”

Within the last few weeks, many posts have adopted different languages, appealing to group members to “support local.”

Aside from the way they’re written, Fernell has also noticed some trends in the profiles that post them.

“You’ll see it’s a newly created profile who’s just joined that group usually within the last couple of weeks. I’ve noticed almost everyone I’ve come across: new profile newly joined the group.”

The profiles almost always list “self-employed” in the work section of the profile and will have posted several pictures in one day to make it look like an active profile.

The posts will often have a few comments praising the poster’s services, also from similarly fake-looking profiles who are sometimes friends with the original poster.

People who comment on the posts with genuine inquiries will always get a response saying the original poster will private message (PM) them back.

We often heard from people who carried through and booked an appointment where someone actually showed up in an unmarked van, entered the customer’s home, and did an incomplete job.

“We’ve gone in, multiple times after people say ‘we just got our furnace cleaned but nothing has changed,’ and we go in and just the top of the vent has been cleaned, so they don’t push anything through the ducts or main ductwork, they don’t clean the fan, they don’t clean the filter, nothing. It’s basically just what you see when you look at the vents, the top of it is clean but they don’t do anything on the inside.”

Others have told her that these profiles have requested money upfront, and blocked the customer as soon as the money was sent over.

All this has made Facebook an inhospitable place for genuine duct cleaning businesses, with group admins often banning genuine duct cleaning businesses due to the sheer amount of scam posts they’re having to deal with.

It’s also created a problem for residents who require duct cleaning services but are too scared to reach out because of how prevalent scams are within that industry.

 

We highly suggest not using Facebook community groups for hiring an air duct cleaner. We recommend you hire responsibility and search for a company on NADCA or ADCBV.

NADCA stands for the “National Air Duct Cleaning Association”. They have links for businesses that are certified and trained professionals in the industry. www.nadca.com

We also highly recommend using ADCBV which is “Air Duct Cleaning Business Verification”. They have rated and scored all the companies in Canada and USA for consumers to compare locally before they hire.

“There are many free online sources available to the consumer to educate themselves before they hire,” says the owner of Duct Masters Inc, Darin Doucet. He also suggests to consumers to “Avoid FaceBook community groups and focus solely on the low bait and switch pricing”.