Toronto company in alleged homeowner scam accused of stealing photos from contractors

A company accused of victimizing homeowners in Toronto is now accused of more illegal action. CityNews first told you about M.B. Roofing and Masonry two weeks ago after a family says the company took advantage of them.

Now they’re accused of stealing something else. This time, from legitimate contractors in the GTA.

“It is very upsetting and frustrating,” said Bob Kreinin, general manager of Newmarket-based Stone Cliff Window Cleaning.

CityNews contacted Stone Cliff after we looked into M.B. Roofing and Masonry when homeowners told us they took hefty deposits and did not finish the work. When we searched their website, we found it had fake reviews and its photo gallery showed pictures that don’t belong to them. Many of the “proof of work done” photos that appear to be stolen from other websites owned by legitimate companies like Stone Cliff.

“They simply copied and pasted photos of work we’ve done from our website,” Kreinin said. “Not only are they using that for themselves but also using it for what appears to be malintent and that’s very upsetting.”

As CityNews told you, the company is accused of pressuring a Toronto family into paying a $1,000 deposit for chimney work the family claims they did not need. The family says they knocked on the door when their elderly mother was home alone, telling her the chimney was not up to code and if she did not hire them, they’d report her to the city. She paid them the deposit, verbally agreeing to pay another $1,000 when the work was complete.

“My mom got scared, speaks very little English and agreed to hire them,” her son, Michael Wu, told CityNews. “They sort of spackled one side of the chimney and said ‘we’re done, can you pay me the extra $1,000?’ My mom said ‘no, it all looks the same.'”

Wu said the workers then started breaking off pieces of the chimney and throwing them into the alley.

“They then tried to kick in our back door to get the rest of the money,” he said.

The family called police and they are investigating. A detective told the Wu’s they may have been targeted by a group of people going around neighbourhoods, scamming other people, mainly elderly homeowners. The investigation continues and so far no arrests have been made.

CityNews looked into the company a bit further and discovered they have multiple websites, under different company names. But the content is all the same, including those photos allegedly stolen from other companies like Stone Cliff.

“We had no idea our photos were being used until CityNews called us,” Kreinin told CityNews. “We don’t have the time or resources to search and see who’s using our photos.”

Cases like this happen more than you may think.

“Unfortunately, it’s trivially easy to rip off content from the Internet,” said David Fewer, general counsel of the Samuelson-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC), a public interest technology law clinic based in Ottawa.

“There’s not a lot you can do to protect yourself against this activity other than watermarking the photographs or otherwise making them unattractive for other people to use,” he said. “But in this case, misappropriating a photograph in this way infringes copyright. It is, generally speaking, illegal.”

That copyright protection is not just for companies, but individuals who have content online as well, including on social media. There are exceptions for fair dealing, like using it for research, private study, satire, criticism and news reporting. But Fewer said this case isn’t that and your copyright protection begins as soon as you post your original work online.

“You don’t have to do anything special. Every original work that we create ourselves is protected by copyright,” Fewer said. “Literary works, artistic works, photographs, all of these things, copyright arises automatically. We all enjoy it for the rest of our lives.”

But if that work is stolen, fighting back to get it taken down isn’t easy. Nobody wants to sue, that’s expensive. But you do have options.

“The quickest and easiest thing to do is to send a cease and desist letter, asking whoever stole your content to take it down. You don’t necessarily have to get a lawyer involved.”

As for Stone Cliff they’re not going down that avenue.

“I don’t think that’s something we’ll be pursuing. We’re busy working in the field,” Kreinin said. “Plus we saw CityNews tried to contact them and they seem like difficult people who run through neighbourhoods — rinse and repeat — and then leave town.”

In fact, CityNews reached out to M.B. Roofing and Masonry several times but they have not yet issued a comment in response to the allegations.

Kreinin said he is speaking out hoping customers dig a bit deeper into the companies they agree to pay.

“If we learn anything from this it’s that now more than ever, you have to put in the research before hiring a contractor.”

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