Warning.

Pearl

Administrator
Staff member
I think it's important that people talk about this because if it helps warn just one person it's worth it.
Never ever ever give someone cash who has just knocked on your door.
My Aunt is elderly and vulnerable, she lives along and looks like an easy target, luckerly she's still got all her shillings but there are so many in her position that don't.
She needed a new roof so very wisely she asked a trusted handyman whom she's known since the Dark ages for a recommendation, he gave her the number of a trusted tradesman who came out and looked at the job, he said he was very busy but promised it would be done before winter, as it turned out he was to busy to get to her so he asked if it was ok to pass the job on to a friend of his who's worked with before and trusted him, she said yes. The new guy rang her and gave her a start date and few days before the scaffolding went up, the day before the job was due to start she had a knock on the door and man stood there and told her he was with roofing company and they'ed ran into a few difficulties and would she be able to pay part of the money up front? She asked how much and he said £3000! She told him she never kept cash in the house but he kept talking to her about the work that was being done and how he wouldn't be able to garantee it would be done by winter, he was trying to pressure her into giving him cash. In the end she told him to come back tomorrow and she'd go to the bank, she just wanted to close the door. The next morning the real roofer showed up and she told him what happened, she said he was furious and told her to shout him in if the guy showed up for the money and he'd deal with it but luckerly he never came back. I think he must have seen the roofers there and realised he'd been rummbled.
I've told her if she sees him again to just ring the police. Some people have no conscience about taking money from the elderly and vulnerable.
If in doubt ring the police.
 
That is terrible. Glad your Aunt was wise enough to know to not hand over any money like that.

Highly doubt any legit company would ask for cash like that upfront on short notice. Any deposit should have been mentioned at the start of negotiations at the least. If the company is that tight for cash then I would not want them working on my house in case they did run out of money and was unable to finish the job. Pay when the job is done seems the way it should be.

Ratbags that prey on the elderly should have their jail time sentences increased several fold. Good of you to put out a warning like this, Pearl.
 
They must have known that the work was about to start. Could have been tipped off by someone from a builders merchant or scaffolding hire company that the tradesman was using. Well done to Pearl's Aunt for not paying up.
 
They must have known that the work was about to start. Could have been tipped off by someone from a builders merchant or scaffolding hire company that the tradesman was using. Well done to Pearl's Aunt for not paying up.
The roofer thinks it's someone going round looking for houses that have scaffolding up, he has a Facebook page and posted it on there. Someone messaged him and said the same thing happened a few streets away around the same time, I don't know how that ended up.
 
Thank you for posting this warning, Pearl and I am glad your aunt did not get involved with this scammer.
It may be worth checking with the Trading Standards department of her local council (in addition to reporting this fraudster to them) to see if they supply sternly-worded window stickers free of charge to deter uninvited traders (my local council does this). It's a problem everywhere. Doing up driveways is another scammer "favourite".
 
As a social worker for social services older adults I cannot stress the importance of this enough. But even more if you have been conned by these people (and some of them are very very convincing) tell someone. It may be too late for you but it may save someone down the line. There is no shame in it, it happens to the best, tell someone so appropriate action can be taken and (I know it’s easy said) don’t let it effect you too much.
 
Now if only someone with a security camera had a picture of this creature that tried to swindle them which they could turn over to the police.
 
I think it's important that people talk about this because if it helps warn just one person it's worth it.
Never ever ever give someone cash who has just knocked on your door.
My Aunt is elderly and vulnerable, she lives along and looks like an easy target, luckerly she's still got all her shillings but there are so many in her position that don't.
She needed a new roof so very wisely she asked a trusted handyman whom she's known since the Dark ages for a recommendation, he gave her the number of a trusted tradesman who came out and looked at the job, he said he was very busy but promised it would be done before winter, as it turned out he was to busy to get to her so he asked if it was ok to pass the job on to a friend of his who's worked with before and trusted him, she said yes. The new guy rang her and gave her a start date and few days before the scaffolding went up, the day before the job was due to start she had a knock on the door and man stood there and told her he was with roofing company and they'ed ran into a few difficulties and would she be able to pay part of the money up front? She asked how much and he said £3000! She told him she never kept cash in the house but he kept talking to her about the work that was being done and how he wouldn't be able to garantee it would be done by winter, he was trying to pressure her into giving him cash. In the end she told him to come back tomorrow and she'd go to the bank, she just wanted to close the door. The next morning the real roofer showed up and she told him what happened, she said he was furious and told her to shout him in if the guy showed up for the money and he'd deal with it but luckerly he never came back. I think he must have seen the roofers there and realised he'd been rummbled.
I've told her if she sees him again to just ring the police. Some people have no conscience about taking money from the elderly and vulnerable.
If in doubt ring the police.
She was really very smart (and lucky) to send the man away without giving him any money. Whether the man knew that he was rumbled, or maybe he saw the real workman at the door and just quietly went away, fortunately she did not even have to confront him. There are so many elderly people, women especially, that have lost their life savings to various people who have many different ploys designed to steal money from the elderly. A favorite is someone calling them on the phone claiming to be a grandson or granddaughter who is in jail and needs to be bailed out right now. Unfortunately, many grandparents fall for that one -- failing to hang the phone up, and contacting their son or daughter to inquire about the said grandchild.
 
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