Recently, I have had an unusual amount of new cases involving shady contractors. One group of clients were conned by a pool contractor who took hundreds of thousands of dollars from several customers one week and then filed bankruptcy the next week. Be sure to conduct plenty of due diligence on any contractor/company that you will be spending a decent amount of money with and then expecting them to perform the contracted services. I'm seeing these particularly with pool contractors, small/medium construction projects, classic car refurbishment, and larger commercial property projects.

I put this together a couple of years ago:

https://infinityrooferjason.blogspot.com/2022/03/picking-reputable-roofer.html

You can replace 'roofer' with....the trade of your choice with some light modifications. I put this together after a storm where I had met three older folks that had given their insurance money to a contractor 'to start the work'....and he left. There is not getting that money back for them.

That's a great link and resource.