To be annoyed by scam big issue sellers, and those behind this set up?

[Creambun2]

In my area of London a cohort of women sell the big issue, always outside waitrose stores. They rotate around different stores in the area on different days, so seller A will be at one store on Monday then move another on Tuesday to be replaced by B etc.

Several times I have seen these women using very recent iphones (and trying to be discrete about it) and I saw one last week being picked up by a man in a very new luxury car.

I think the big issue should be more aware of situations like this and try and prevent it? Aside from anything else I'm sure these women may be being exploited themselves.

The man with the cat, Bob? Talks about how it’s in places exploited and some sellers are at harm from gang masters.

I had a BI seller telling me with sad eyes, following me and saying this is my last one today and I can go home, so I bought it. I had my suspicions so I watched him, he rushed back to his post took another out of his bag and did the same thing to someone else. So I reported to to the company, they were not happy as this is not what they expect from their sellers. They said they would be calling him I straight away.

Op don’t you realise you can never accuse anyone who appears to be poor of scamming the system

Unless they are white British they are allowed to be bashed as they are just lazy fuckers

What's happened to all the non "suspected Romanian gang related" big issue sellers? Apart from my distress about trafficked humans and gang exploitation- where is everyone else? Is it not worth it to them or have they been pushed out? That's another concern.

Sounds like the Big Issue sellers in Richmond and St Margaret’s

trickyboots have read articles on-line that suggest they have been pushed out. Some even alleging physical violence from gangs.

chocolatesun add East Sheen and Twickenham to that list too!

In my little North East town, We haven't had a BI seller for years. The high street is deserted. We do have a lot in the closest city though, and most of them are British, I think.

Our lovely local seller has also disappeared to be replaced by Eastern Europeans. We no longer buy the BI but give money to the Robes Project and St Mungos instead.

I'm old enough to remember when the Big Issue was launched in the UK in the early 90s, I was a student and it was a revolutionary idea. I bought one regularly from various people across Glasgow.

Now there are two Big Issue sellers close to where I work in a Glasgow suburb, one older woman and one younger one - think they may be mother and daughter. They are both Eastern European, probably Romanian. The mother's English is so poor that she can't even say "Big Issue" properly. The "daughter" appears to come and go, she's there some days and not others. There is also a Romanian man who knows both of them, no idea if he's related or not, but he stands outside Gregg's and plays the violin. Problem is that he only knows "Oh Susannah" and "Hava Nagila".

I don't buy it any more. Big Issue was supposed to be a short term way of sellers getting themselves off the streets, into employment, getting references, housing. These people in my local high street have been selling the BI (and playing bloody Hava Nagila) for at least three years.

Yanbu, if you are selling the big issue then you should not be allowed a mobile phone unless it is 5 years old + and you should definitely not know someone with a Luxury car let alone accept a lift from them.
I will only purchase the Big Issue if the seller meets my specific prerequisites of how a homeless person should look and behave.
I can't imagine the millions these Big Issue scammer cartels are making off of us kind, decent hard working folk!

I'm not really reading the thread like that. I'm reading it like people have made some observations and it's affecting how they feel about a previously trusted charity. Trafficked people are in a shite position for sure.

My workplace upgrades employees work phones every year and donates many of the old ones to charities that work with the homeless and womens shelters. Hundreds of current or near current iPhones and Galaxies each year. Laptops and iPads too.

I do the same with my personal electronics when I upgrade (which is often), as do many people I know. I’ve also donated a lot of nice clothes (expensive winter jackets and rain boots for example) over the years.

Don’t judge by things like what electronics people own or what they’re wearing. A lot of the people who can afford to donate often are wealthy, and thus have nice things they don’t flinch at giving away.

I’d also add that smartphones really aren’t a luxury, not when you don’t have any other reliable means of internet access, and also that cheap fake ‘iPhones’ are plentiful if you’re looking in the right places, so any iPhones you see may not even be real iPhones.

I stopped buying the Big Issue about 10 years ago, but mostly because it was very very boring. Although the fact that the 'short term homeless' person selling it outside my local shop had been there for about four years even then, before the recession kicked in, also had a lot to do with it.

i live in east london in an area where it is common knowledge that the local big issue sellers aren't all that they make themselves out to be. lots of people have seen them dropped off in the morning from a fancy mercedes car.

If anyone genuinely thinks people are being exploited - be it selling big issue, working in a nail bar or washing cars can you please PLEASE call the modern slavery helpline. There is help for the people being exploited and the police will investigate the people in charge. Its 08000 121 700.
Don't post on mumsnet, do something to help - its just a phone call so it's no more hassle than this thread.

I used to buy Big Issue because it really did help people who needed help and a way back . but now I don't, the whole thing seems to have been hijacked by people who are abusing the system, eg selling big issue gives people who are NOT entitled to it a way to get housing and other benefits . Completely wrong.

I don't give to BI sellers any more, though I used to. They all seem to be of a certain type now - women wearing headscarves with not so discreet Smartphones - there's always one outside our local Waitrose and ditto dd's, and I suspect there are gangmasters behind them.

There was a TV prog. some time ago - presented by a Romanian - about gangmasters and the money they make, and the presenter pointed out some of their very flash villas in Bucharest.

I now give only to charities for the homeless - mainly Crisis, St Mungo's and the Sally Army. There are just too many scams. One supposedly homeless bloke I used to give to was always outside M&S with his dog. Turned out later that he had a flat - owned, not rented - and a nice fat stash in the bank.

Big issue don't seem to care.

The Romanian seller in my small town has been selling for 20years. I used to buy it from him until I saw his phone and saw him through the betting shop window putting pound after pound in the slot machine. He obviously didn’t need my money if he could do this! I have also seen him around when he is not selling and he looks a million dollars, obviously dresses down in order to sell. Makes me very uncomfortable these days as he mutters under his breath when I decline and walk on. He’s made a good living out of selling the BI.

I know our BI seller comes in from London on the train every day and then changes into scruffy clothes. She has been doing it for years. A local friend in the police knows all about her.
I don’t feel comfortable giving to anyone on the street unless it’s late at night and cold. Sorry I don’t trust people. So many scam artists about. Even the geniuine homeless people tried to get a little old lady to hand over £20 when she gave them a few quid as they looked in her purse. I find it all intimidating. I think the ethos of big issue was corrupted a long, long time ago.
You get to know who really are living on the streets and I only give to them.
Last time I was up in London there was a crowd of organised beggars oppersite top shop. It’s a fact of life nowdays and who knows what your really funding? You don’t know in big towns if they are sizing up to mug you.
Bah humbug!

^Sorry, explain to me how man refusing sandwich is ‘scamming’?

I don't get this thread at all.

Why shouldn't Big Issue sellers have smart phone or get picked up in fancy cars?

Selling the Big Issue involves standing in the street all day selling magazines for £1 doesn't it? Where's the scam? I don't think anyone is going to make millions selling big issue. You're buying a product, how can you be scammed?

As for the phone and car, it could be the persons support worker picking them up.

I just don't get what you are trying to say.

As for beggars refusing sandwiches. It's a well known fact that not all beggars and homeless, but whether they are or not, why should they accept your sandwich?

I've always found the logic of giving beggars sandwiches bizarre. What if they don't like that sandwich, what if everyone gave them a sandwich, they'd be full up no?

You honestly don’t see the scam? The sellers won’t be seeing any of the money. They will be forced to sell, and punished if they don’t make enough. The gang leaders will probably have their passports and tell them they’ll be deported if they don’t comply. With twenty sellers each making £20-£50 a day it soon adds up for them. They’re not homeless but they do live in those horrible HMOs. They may well be legit sellers but they are not working for themselves.

The you’ve got the ones who are an active and willing part of the set up, the professional beggars who are a) doing it illegally and not through the BI and b) not remotely poor or homeless.

The whole system of the Big Issue is flawed and broken, it needs scrapping as it just legitimises this scamming. Although I suppose without it they’d be running prostitutes instead.

Our pushy guy outside the Co Op isn’t a genuine seller, and if you are naive enough to buy from him he always asks for more, for nappies, rent, phone credit. And he gets nasty.