Dan O'Connor remembers getting the voicemail and feeling confused.
The structural engineer has more than 30 years of industry experience works on large transportation projects for state agencies and municipalities. According to the message, there were questions about a report he'd supposedly written about a home in Malden, Massachusetts.
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"I had zero idea what they were talking about," O'Connor recalled.
The people with questions were Dan and Lydia Cox, who believed O'Connor had recently been at their property and inspected the foundation for potential damage.
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It was supposed to be a simple project for the Coxes after they hired Joseph Connors of Greater Masonry and Construction to replace the front steps at their property last May.
However, the project got off to a rocky start. According to Connors, the demolition of the stairs had revealed significant damage to the home's fieldstone foundation.
"He told us he could not, in good conscience, go forward with the stairs knowing our foundation was crumbling," Lydia Cox said.
The couple said Connors even brought someone to the property he introduced as a structural engineer to make his own assessment.
They later received a report that said it was written by Dan O'Connor, complete with an engineer stamp and the logo of his firm, Collins Engineers, based in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
The report recommended roughly $60,000 in work to fix the foundation.
But the Coxes, both scientists who make a living writing reports, thought something did not pass the smell test.
"It's probably the worst report I've seen," said Dan Cox. "There were punctuation errors, run-on sentences, and no pictures taken."
The sketchy report was enough to motivate the Coxes to get a second opinion.
When that engineer visited their home, he determined there was nothing wrong with the foundation. The only problem was the damage that appeared to be intentionally done during the contractor's excavation.
That's when the Coxes called the real Dan O'Connor to get an explanation.
"It was terrifying," O'Connor told us. "As an engineer, we are professionally and personally liable for the recommendations and designs that we do."
When we viewed the letter with O'Connor, he referenced the poor grammar and said it was also missing key details like his engineer license number and signature on the stamp.
"Luckily, there were red flags," he said. "Unfortunately, with a little more sophistication, this probably could have passed muster with a lot of people."
The NBC10 Boston Investigators learned that Patrick Connors -- the person the Coxes recognized as the man who impersonated the engineer at their home -- has since been deported to Ireland because he's wanted for crimes there.
In a release, U.S. Immigrations Customs and Enforcement said Connors is part of a coordinated group of foreign nationals known as "the Traveling Conmen Fraud Group."
As we told you last month, Homeland Security Investigations said the group is getting more brazen with their tactics and has increased their activity around the New England area.
Investigators with HSI are busy trying to track the stolen money before it's laundered overseas.
"These are scam artists to the core," said Michael Krol, the special agent in charge with HSI. "They are driven only by greed and by money."
After discovering they were being scammed, the Coxes contacted Malden police and persuaded Joseph Connors to return to their home to discuss the project.
When he arrived, police were waiting and put him in handcuffs.
The NBC10 Boston Investigators have connected Connors to 11 other fraud victims in the past year. He has since disappeared and is considered a fugitive from justice.
The Coxes were forced to dig deep financially to hire a different contractor to repair the damage to their foundation and finish the front steps.
They lamented that there seems to be endless material for our award-winning "To Catch a Contractor" reports.
"The fact that you guys have a whole series on this is very disheartening," Lydia Cox said.
More from our "To Catch a Contractor" series
Meanwhile, O'Connor is concerned about how many other letters are floating around with his name on them. He has alerted licensing boards in several New England states to let them know about the potential of fake letters.
As a piece of consumer advice, he recommended homeowners always hire their own engineer instead of someone the contractor brings on site to make sure they are getting an independent evaluation.
For now, he is holding his breath and hoping he doesn't get another call from an unsuspecting homeowner.
"The concern for me is obviously professional liability," O'Connor said. "But also, just human decency and having folks lose their hard-earned money for unfortunate reasons."
