More homeowners in Ontario say they have been victims of paving scams where they overpaid for poor work, leaving piles of driveway debris in their front yards.

Carol Simons from Aurora said last month that someone came to her door and said they were working in the area and wanted to know if she wanted her driveway paved.

Simons said, "This service is desperately needed. We thought, why not go with these people if they are here in the driveway paving area." While the contractors were initially friendly, once the job was done, they immediately demanded $5,000 in cash and said they would come back later to clean up a large pile of asphalt debris in their front yard.

Simons said, "We asked them if they would come back and clean up the mess in our front yard and they said yes, but they never returned."

The asphalt residue is very heavy and Simons has no way to dispose of it. "We don’t have any more money for someone to take it away, so we have to dismantle it and I’ll have to take it to the landfill myself.

Simons said, "I’m 60 years old, so I’m not happy about that." A paving company was also going door to door in Pickering and Novin also contracted a company to do his own driveway.

But when the driveway was completed, Novin complained about the quality of the work, and the company immediately took off, leaving a huge pile of asphalt debris in his front yard.

Mike Borschel, Novin’s neighbor, contacted CTV News concerned about Novin’s predicament and reached out to others on his street who also have paving problems.

Both Simons and Novin tried to contact the paving companies to get them to come back and remove the asphalt debris, but in both cases the addresses on their contracts were fake and their phone calls went unanswered.

Barrie Police Service said some paving companies use “similar” names resembling reputable and legitimate paving companies but have no place of business.

Barrie Police issued a warning about paving scams in the Barrie area after getting calls from several victims and a local company saying one contractor was using a trade name very similar to their company's name.

The public should be aware that these paving scams happen. Peter Lyon, from Barrie Police Communications, said, "This is not just in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), but it also happens north, east, and west of the GTA."

Lyon added, "We need to hold these individuals accountable, and if we can, we will charge them with fraud because this is what we are dealing with—they are fraudulent operators."

Simons said it’s unfortunate because the bad operators ruin the reputation of paving companies that work hard and do a good job. He said, "I really think they are hurting the industry."