to sleep with a cricket bat under my bed now?

[Thingiebob]

Feel a bit silly. I got doorstepped by a young lad selling cleaning materials. He was perfectly polite and explained he was selling on commission. I felt a bit sorry for him so I bought some stuff. Now as far as I understand I've been a dick, he will give my address to his gangmaster and they will burgle me at a later date.

Is this true?!

Who said you were a dick?

Now as far as I understand I've been a dick, he will give my address to his gangmaster and they will burgle me at a later date.

Rubbish. It's a scam in that there is usually a sob story - people say they are homeless or have just been released from prison or are blind, and use that to convince people to buy overpriced rubbish - but there's usually no criminal intent. You've just decided to buy some cleaning stuff for more than you would usually have paid.

Usually these people don't come inside? I'd be a bit more concerned if you invited him in, but to be honest, I think if he'd been that way inclined and you had invited him in, he'd have pocketed anything worth having then and there, rather than coming back later.

Having had a quick squizz at the interweb it seems the idea is they get you to buy enough overpriced crap to the value of say £10.
If you return with a crumpled note they leave and that's it.
A fresh new note gets more attention and they engage you more chit chat and then your address is sold to every criminal in every pub locally.
Not sure how true it is.

www.safelocaltrades.com/consumers/advice/nottingham-knockers

I think its unlikely they will burgle you unless it looked like you had lots of money lying around.
Whats more likely is you will now get a spate of " roofers" doing work in the area just noticed you need work doing...
Or your driveway needs works doing...
Or garden needs tidying...

Just say no thanks, I dont keep spare cash in the house.

I now say my son deals with all the jobs needing doing ( I used to say I'll have to ask my dad first he deals with these things on his day off from the police)

Various friends/family. No I didn't let him in. He was on his own. Very young. He stood drinking coke on driveway sorting out his bag of over priced tat. Explained he was getting commission and his team leader drives him and others around to sell in different area. It was a pretty crumpled note tbh :)

The big scam is the sob story getting you to buy the cleaning stuff at vast profit to them when you could get similar down at the poundshop

Phone your local police station and ask them. It sounds like an urban myth to me, you cant tell if someone has cash from the state of a note.

I was panicking. I know I'm a soft touch. He had a pedlars and public hawkers licence.

Oh, FFS. What value would your address be to a gangmaster? They can drive past the house if they want to know that it exists, or they can look at it on Google Earth. They have no idea what you have in the house, nor what security precautions you have in place. For all they know you have a state of the art security system and a partner permanently at home who is built like a brick shithouse.

I've had a number of these scam artists come round, and we've not been burgled yet (touch wood).

Thank you for your reassurance Augusta.

Shame he wasn't selling grips

Seriously think logically about this for a moment. Why would someone buying stuff over the doorstep be more likely to be burgled that someone who doesn't?

I can understand that people calling in an area get a chance for a close up recky at houses, by walking down the drive, seeing where they keep their front door key, handbag and so on. But other than that you buying dusters will not have created any form of signal to the criminal underworld.

He had a pedlars and public hawkers licence.

And how do you know it was genuine?

I don't. Hence this post.

I wouldn't worry. We often get people calling selling stuff like this.

Yeah, sleep with a bat under your bed if you want a burglar to grab it off you and batter you senseless..
Unless you are trained in fighting with a bat....it's not a brilliant idea.

Ummmmmmmm, what?

I

I googled the licence and there seems to be a lot of scare stories. I panicked!

I've been out of the policing business for 3 years so things could have changed. However, these guys are usually recovering drug addicts/recently out of prison/never worked in their life types. They work for these companies trying to sell overpriced crap to gain a reference and experience. The companies employ them as it costs them nothing as the employees work solely on commission.
They don't sell your address. Your address is public knowledge!
There may be the odd bad one so not a good idea to invite them in!
The stories are scare stories and nothing more.
Buy or don't buy; it's up to you. Some people like the convenience which is why there is a market for them.

These door to door sellers are known as Nottingham Knockers. Google them. Totally bogus about having just been released from prison / youth offender scheme, etc. They regularly do the rounds in my area and have been known to get verbally abusive when people tell them "no thanks".

I feel sorry for the poor chaps - they often are out of prison.
Anyway unless you live in a fancy house and neighbourhood it is unlikely it is worth passing on your address to a gangmaster.
I buy the tat! Never been burgled.

I always thought these were more likely to be for distraction burglaries if anything. He occupies you at the front while his mate is trying the back door.

Ok, the purpose of the Nottingham Knocker is to see if the house is empty or occupied during the day, if occupied is it occupied by a soft target - I.e. someone elderly who lives alone who can be targeted again in the future with either a scam of some kind or by theft.

They are not fresh out of prison, they are not a young offender.