WARWICK, R.I. — The doorbell rang. Donald S. Fife, an 83-year-old retired Air Force veteran, looked out the window of his beige ranch house and didn’t recognize the man with reddish hair on the front steps. So he didn’t answer the door.
But the man returned later in the day. Figuring it must be important, Fife opened the door. The man told him he was a contractor fixing the steps of Fife’s neighbor, and he’d noticed the foundation of Fife’s home was cracked.
Fife asked if he detected an Irish accent. Why, yes indeed, the man said — he was from Dublin.
“We clicked,’’ Fife told the Globe. “He’s Irish, I’m Irish. I trusted him.’’
The man used blue spray paint to mark cracks on the foundation stucco, and offered to fix them for $4,000 — no money up front. Fife agreed. The man said his crew needed to dig around the foundation to see how far down the cracks extended. Bad news: He said he’d need $9,500 to fix the damage. Fife wrote the check.
The crew kept digging and chiseling away at the foundation. And soon the man had more bad news: The damage was worse then expected; he’d need $95,000 to fix it.
But by then, though, Fife was growing suspicious. Soon, he told the story to his daughter-in-law, who said, “That is a scam! Go to the police go right now.’’
According to federal prosecutors, she was right.
John O’Brien, 28, of Ireland, faces wire fraud and conspiracy charges for allegedly being part of a “traveling conman fraud group’’ that has bilked homeowners out of nearly $2 million in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. O’Brien is being detained following his arrest by Homeland Security Investigations on March 28 for allegedly overstaying a tourist visa, according to Acting US Attorney for Rhode Island Sara Miron Bloom’s office.
O’Brien’s attorney, Kensley Barrett, said in a statement, “My client and I believe these charges are wholly without merit and that the evidence will show that my client entered into service contracts with numerous homeowners where the work was completed satisfactorily.’’
O’Brien is accused of defrauding property owners by convincing them to pay for home repairs that were not needed and often not completed. He is also accused of misrepresenting the qualifications of his purported construction business, Traditional Masonry & Construction.
Investigators say they found four binders in O’Brien’s truck containing quotes, contracts, and invoices ranging from $300 to $205,000 and totaling $1,987,650, court documents show.
Federal authorities said the alleged scheme, known as “traveling conman fraud,’’ is becoming increasingly common in the United States. According to the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center, conmen travelers are groups of residents of Ireland or the United Kingdom who enter the country illegally or overstay tourist visas.
The victims included four homeowners in Warwick, two in Providence, one in Pawtucket, and one in West Roxbury, according to an affidavit written by an East Providence police officer on a Homeland Security Investigations task force.
According to the affidavit, the West Roxbury victim is an 82-year-old widow who reported paying O’Brien and his brother more than $200,000 for work that was worth between $13,000 and $30,000.
The widow told Boston police they initially charged her $25,000 for work on her chimney. They then requested more money, in $7,500 increments, after discovering supposed problems, and ended up charging her $175,000 for repairs to the foundation of her home, court records show.
In late March, O’Brien showed up at Gillooly Drive in Warwick at the home of a couple, ages 86 and 85, and offered to fix their front stairs. They agreed to pay him $7,000, court records show.
O’Brien told the couple their foundation might also need work, but they said they’d never had water in their basement. O’Brien then suggested replacing their bulkhead stone stairway, and they agreed to pay an additional $17,000, for a total of $24,000, court records show.
“O’Brien was very friendly and showed up to work each day,’’ the affidavit states. “He even bought Victim 2 two 4-packs of Guinness beer for Victim 2 to drink.’’
Victim 2 lives just down the street from Fife, who is described in court records as Victim 1.
On a recent day, Fife showed a reporter a 4-foot-deep ditch the crew dug around his house and the spray paint on his foundation.
According to court records, a home inspector hired by the US Attorney’s Office examined Fife’s home and “was unable to observe any obvious cracking along the front or side of the house that would raise concern about the foundation’s structural integrity.’’
On the day police arrested O’Brien, Fife said, he told a Warwick officer that “I’m kicking myself for being stupid.’’ But the officer told him it could have been worse — other victims lost more than $200,000 of their savings.
Now, Fife said, he has planted a new sign in his front yard that reads: “Private property — NO soliciting, loitering, trespassing.’’
Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at edward.fitzpatrick@globe.com.
