'I was scared:' Ontario woman who lost $158K in roofing scam says she was told her home might collapse

An Ontario woman who just wanted to get some gutter guards to keep leaves out of her eavestroughs said she was convinced her home was going to collapse and handed over $158,000 in a roofing scam.

“It’s a lot of money. Looking back, I can’t believe it happened, but they use fear and intimidation to scare you,” said Sita Dubeau of Scarborough.

Dubeau said it was in July when she thought she would try to find someone to install guards on her eavestroughs and she went on Bark.com, a website that matches homeowners with companies looking for work to do.

She hired a company called Homebuild Roofing and Masonry and two men showed up at her house, but once they got up on her roof they said both her chimneys were about to fall over.

"They're telling you how dangerous it is, that the chimney could come down on somebody,” said Dubeau.

They knocked down her chimneys and ripped off her shingles and then said her entire roof was rotten and showed her a photo of decomposed beams and told her that her house could collapse at anytime.

"I was extremely shocked, in a state of disbelief, but you’re scared about it so you do what you think is best,” said Dubeau.

The company told her the repairs would be $158,000 and that they could do the work right away but only if she could pay in advance.

"So I went to the bank and got wire transfers, e-transfer whatever they wanted. I paid the whole thing,” said Dubeau.

Her family became concerned and her son Dylan Dubeau decided to do a Google reverse image search and discovered the photo of the rotting beams was not from their home, but instead it had been taken from a roofing website in Texas.

"Immediately, I said to my mom, 'this is a scam do not give them anymore money and call the police,'” said Dylan Dubeau.

When Debeau called the company to finish the job they said they weren't coming back.

“The engineer and boss man said the house was too dangerous to return to work,” said Dubeau.

Her insurance company has covered her roof with tarps and protection, but before they did while the shingles were off there was a rainstorm and her house flooded.

Dubeau’s home is filled with water extraction machines trying to stop more damage.

“They’re drying out the water in my home that leaked in from the unprotected roof,” said Dubeau.

CTV News Toronto reached out to Homebuild Roofing and Masonry, calling and emailing the company. The phone number is no longer in service and our emails were not returned.

Dubeau said she paid the money to two men she identified as Charlie Mitchell and John McColley.

We reached out Bark.com where Dubeau found the roofers.

A spokesperson for the website said in a statement “Firstly, we want to express our sympathy to the individual affected by this unfortunate incident. We take these situations very seriously and continuously work to create a safer and more reliable platform. However, while Bark.com strives to connect customers with trustworthy professionals and monitors feedback closely, we also encourage customers to conduct their own thorough research to ensure the suitability and quality of the professional they choose.”

“Once we have made the introduction of a professional to an individual, the responsibility for the provision of services lies solely with the professional engaged by the customer and Bark does not have any visibility of this. However, upon receiving this complaint, we took immediate action to ban the company in question, Homebuild Roofing and Masonry, from our platform.”

“Additionally, we have spoken directly with the customer to provide support and assurance during this challenging time. Should the authorities become involved in investigating this matter, we are fully prepared to cooperate with their inquiries to the fullest extent possible to assist the customer within our capacity.”

Dubeau's home remains a mess and she says the $158,000 was all the money she had.

“My husband died a year ago and I felt really vulnerable. I felt there was no one there to help me,” said Dubeau.

A police report has been filed but at this point the roofers are nowhere to be found. If you're having a job done make sure you know a company's physical address and never pay in advance as once money is paid out it can be almost impossible to get it back.