There really are some despicable people out there

wack61

wack61

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My father in law passed away a couple of months ago, yesterday I got a phone call from my mother in law who's 84.

she'd received a phone call from somebody selling guttering and facia boards, they told her they were ready to start the work they just needed to know which colour she wanted.

She has never asked anyone to fit new guttering, nor has anyone been out at any point to measure up,.

I think some scumbag has seen the death notice in the paper, somehow got her phone number and has rung up implying my father in law had given them approval to start the work

Unfortunately she didn't dial 1471 or I would have been talking to the police by now :bat:
 
Be careful with that one Darren, this is a common trick used by pykies, quite often they will come round, go up the ladder and start ripping down the guttering.

If she is not too frail I would tactfully tell your Mum to call the police immediately if they show up at the door.
 
I was following a van for a guttering firm a few weeks ago, 0800 number on the side, "we're in Yellow Pages" logo's, professionally sign written,national contracts on the side, it looked clean only a couple of years old, not in a million years did it say gypsy on the side, right up to the point it turned into a gypsy camp.

Unless they're putting guttering on caravans now
 
Few years ago my wife had a phone call from a firm to book an appointment for a new kitchen, they told her they had met me in the shopping centre in Doncaster and agreed a deal for a new kitchen. They gave a time and date, luckily it was when I was at work and as we work at the same factory she new exectly where I was. Told them where they could fit the kitchen:eek:.

Anybody who picks on the vulnerable needs a stint somewhere warm looking for IED's with a garden fork.
 
someone phoned me once to tell me they were "coming around next week to start work on my conservatory". i played along, only because i had hatched a plan within that one sentence.

i told them to look at my address and tell me if anything would prevent them from starting the work. they said "nope, all good here" so i replied "are you going to put it on stilts ?" - confused the man on the phone went "hah, no, why would we do that sir ?".

"i live in a 4th floor apartment" was my response. needless to say the call ended quite quickly :P
 
wack61 said:
My father in law passed away a couple of months ago, yesterday I got a phone call from my mother in law who's 84.

she'd received a phone call from somebody selling guttering and facia boards, they told her they were ready to start the work they just needed to know which colour she wanted.

She has never asked anyone to fit new guttering, nor has anyone been out at any point to measure up,.

I think some scumbag has seen the death notice in the paper, somehow got her phone number and has rung up implying my father in law had given them approval to start the work

Unfortunately she didn't dial 1471 or I would have been talking to the police by now :bat:
Click to expand...

I dont know anything about technology but I wonder if the police would be able to get the phone number of the caller from BT.
 
Hacker said:
Be careful with that one Darren, this is a common trick used by pykies, quite often they will come round, go up the ladder and start ripping down the guttering.

If she is not too frail I would tactfully tell your Mum to call the police immediately if they show up at the door.
Click to expand...

And it has happened to me. Ten years ago, one morning this guy turned up at my doorstep asking me if I was interested in having my guttering replaced. In actual fact, I did say I was thinking of having the old asbestos stuff replaced and wouldn't mind a quote. He said "okay mate, we'll take a look and get back to you in a couple of hours".
And I had forgotten all about it as I popped into town. When I got back my house was surrounded by workers on ladders ripping the whole guttering down and were starting to quickly put the plastic stuff up. I shouted out "Hang on! I only wanted a quote, I didn't even ask if I wanted any work done yet!". I was quite livid but I let them finish it off anyway and then when they asked for payment which came to £200. I got my chequebook out but the bloke said "Er, actually, I'd much rather have cash". I said "I don't have any cash about the house so you'll have to take a cheque and there's no way I'm leaving the house to go to the bank at this point".
I made the cheque out and they left. I looked at what they done and it was the most shoddy rushed bit of workmanship I've seen. The lot would've come off if a sparrow came to rest on it!
But what they didn't know was that I had noticed down the number on the side of their van, then I phoned up the bank to stop the cheque.
Two days later, I had a very irate sounding bloke on the phone about why I stopped the cheque. I said "Well, you sprang this on me, now you know how it feels like, and I'm not giving you any money back until you make a proper job of it". He turned up at my place the next day and said "tell you what, mate, give me £50 anyway and I'll let you sort it out yourself". I went along with that, and it only took me a ladder, a cordless drill and a couple of hours to tidy things up anyway.

But yes, there are some real scumbags out there.
 
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I would suggest that you inform the police and Trading Standards in any case, if not just for their information. Others might have experienced the same thing around that time or in that area who might just have phoned it in and they might just be able to link the similar occurences together (ok..I am being optimistic.) In any case, you should get your MIL to register her number with BT's call barring service (free not matter what provider) which does filter alot of numbers. Remember, any cold callers who quote work for over £35 have to provide written notice of a cooling off period...otherwise it's an arrestable offence. Maybe by informing the police as well they might install a memo-cam in case the *******s turn up on her door?
 
People like this who prey on the elderly and vulnerable really pee me off.
 
My nan had a similar thing happen, problem is she is too trusting and a bit forgetful, invited them in, made a cuppa etc, 'lovely man was so nice, very good quote for the windows and doors'

My dad went round when the bloke came back, and asked WTF he thought he was doing trying to sell windows and doors to someone on the grounds that they need changing to modern units- they were only 2 yrs old!! my nan is a 4ft skinny OAP, my old man is 6'4, the bloke mumbled and left
 
Call the police anyway, even if they cannot do anything it gets record for intelligence purposes.
 
PauloWanClift said:
Call the police anyway, even if they cannot do anything it gets record for intelligence purposes.
Click to expand...

As above - a one off occurrence might not get much attention but if everyone who this happened too recorded it, it builds a picture and could give the police something to work on.
 
I would suggest reporting it too.

I'm a CID officer (these days), attached to a specialist burglary unit. On my borough, I see around two or three "distraction burglaries" a month. These are almost always targetted at the elderly, and always involve an element of deception. The most common method is to knock at the door and either pretend to be from a utility company, or that there is some emergency - water leaks, gas leaks, that sort of thing. Usually, the vulnerable elderly resident is very confused and - in being well-meaning - lets the burglar straight in. I realise that a burglary hasn't happened in this particular case, but it's still clearly someone trying to work a fraud on a vulnerable, lone elderly lady.

Unfortunately, crimes like this are very difficult to solve. The forensic evidence is usually minimal, and the elderly victim cannot remember very much about what happened. However, most criminals repeat their methods; once they've found a successful way of conning people, they will do it over and over again because they need a reliable supply of cash. However, we need to know about it in order to build up a pattern of behaviour.

Reporting things like this might just give someone somewhere a chance at solving a whole range of crimes.
 
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I'm going down to see her today, she has a caller display phone I bought for her so i'm going to see if it's stored a number, I doubt it but you never know.

I bought the phone and programed all her numbers in so she could see who's calling and let it go to answerphone if it was a number she didn't recognise so she didn't have to get into conversation with people like this, she still just picks the phone up on the 3rd ring though:bonk:
 
I'd report it to the police. It is important that they have a picture of what is going on.
On the few occasions I have phoned the police about potential bogus callers in the area they did attend and question them resulting in them stop knocking on doors and go away.
 
Always handy to let the law know someone is in the area doing dodgy dealings.
 
We get quite alot cold callers for those kind of things, I find its just best to say, "I ONLY RENT THIS HOUSE" they dont hang around long..:naughty:
 
Can I suggest if you know her neighbours call round and ask them to keep an eye out for any vans or work men and maybe give the neighbours a contact number for yourself so they can give you a call to warn you?
 
That's a good suggestion, you've just reminded me, her next door neighbour is a police officer so i'll have a word with him
 
I hope you get this ended Darren, these people are utter scum and deserve prison, people like YOU are the salt of the earth looking out for family:clap:
 
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