Is it a scam? How do they make any money?!

[StarfishSandwich]

Earlier this afternoon there was a knock at my front door. I wasn’t expecting a delivery and we live in the middle of nowhere and never get charities/salespeople at the door so I was assuming it was one of the neighbours calling round for a chat.

It turned out to be one of those ‘I’ve been medically discharged from the army and I’ve been given an opportunity to become a salesperson if I can sell X number of overpriced tea towels’ people. He had no ID, just a slightly crinkled card with some company’s name that I have since forgotten unfortunately and some writing on and was carrying his wares in a battered old rucksack. I felt bad for the guy. He’d clearly had a tough life and was having a difficult day but I didn’t need anything and strongly expected this was something I didn’t want to get embroiled in.

DH says it is a legitimate company but that it’s a kind of MLM and the poor blokes make nothing out of it. I always thought it was just a made up scam to pressurise elderly people into paying extortionate sums of money for things they don’t really need. Which is it? AIBU to still feel a bit bad for the man?

Many years ago I had a young man appear at my door with a bag of (possibly over-priced) dusters, tea towels etc. He also handed me a very grubby card which stated he had been ‘struck dumb’ following a car crash where he witnessed the death of both parents and his 12 year old sister. I told him I was sorry for his troubles but I didn’t buy at the doorstep. He told me to fuck off. I said that a miracle had obviously occurred, and I thought I might alert the media. Strangely, he didn’t seem at all pleased to have recovered the power of speech...

I've heard that they're really looking for vulnerable older people, they'll wait to see where the person fetches the money from - a folded note from a purse or wallet or a crisp new note from a stash in a safe or somewhere upstairs, to see if it's worth robbing later on.

Interesting Dog this sounds very plausible. I am in the South East and thought it very bizarre that a man with a strong North Eastern accent would be in the area where he would be unlikely to have family ties etc. But that fits!

Honestly please be very very wary of these people! I know someone who let them in “for a glass of water” as they said they had to walk very far. She let them in and once he noticed her husband was at home he ran off without the water and got into a van! It’s total bullshit. Unfortunately I get about one a month, and I get such a bad vibe from them - i always explain I don’t have cash at home (i don’t).

I have not one but two "No cold callers" signs that pretty comprehensively cover every potential eejit that approaches my door and yet STILL they come.

I suppose isolated elderly people are a good target

So are isolated houses, which may well explain why he came to call on you in the middle of nowhere

Please be careful, starfish

Cheers Blinded I will get one of those. I hate answering the door when I’m on my own , especially when it gets to winter and the evenings are dark.

Oh, and if you track down the genuine Police/Trading Standards alerts you'll see that they're not so alarmist as the media versions. They tend to focus on the shoddy nature of the goods, and less than half mention possible checking out of premises for later crimes.

Quite who invented the bank note sniffing angle is a mystery, as is how anyone could possibly believe such a piece of Daily Heil bullshit.

@KittyHawke80 That brought a lump to my throat. Poor man. Life can be so tough to so many.

I hate answering the door when I’m on my own , especially when it gets to winter and the evenings are dark.

Just don’t answer it then. I never do, they can hang off my doorbell for as long as they like.

Awful, isn’t it? I had to go out and buy some wine - recounting that brought it all back. My mum asked why I was crying and when I told her, she could remember it vividly, herself. She said she and dad talked about it a lot that night, and occasionally thereafter. What brought him that low, I wonder? Flogging shammy leathers door-to-door in his forties/fifties. Obviously intelligent, obviously educated. He looked - broken. And ashamed. Ashamed. Ach. Fuck the world, seriously.

Definitely a scam. We've had them I our area recently except they're claiming to have just been released from prison. They got quite aggressive with some people who refused to buy anything or asked questions.
The police keep issuing warnings to ignore and phone the non emergency number.

I’ve had two of these guys recently. The first one was really polite and said “I’m going to offer you some overpriced crap you don’t need because I’m an ex offender who’s trying to turn my life around and earn a bit of cash to pay my way”. I actually felt sorry for him and nearly bought something until I realised honesty is just another scam.

The second guy knocked when I was sleep deprived and had spent hours trying to get a sick baby to sleep. He’d finally dozed off when this guy knocked repeatedly. So I leaned out the living room window with a screaming baby in my arms and shouted STOP KNOCKING THE BABY IS ILL AND TRYING TO SLEEP. He absolutely kicked off and started screaming who the f* do you think you are, how dare you raise your voice to me, I’ll kick your head in and your brat won’t be ill because I’ll smash its skull and it’ll be dead, etc.

DH heard the racket and came downstairs to tell him to mind his manners and go away, and the guy screamed at him that he needs to keep his bitch under control. DH went outside and I genuinely thought there was going to be a fight. I had to drag DH inside and lock the door.

I called the police who said there are legit schemes for this sort of thing but they’d send a patrol by if the guy was being anti social. If it is a genuine scheme then IMO they should only send people who can deal with rejection and being told to go away, not people who are liable to go crazy and threaten innocent home owners!

We had one a few weeks ago - a young woman of about 20. I was very busy and I did not have time to look at her wares and just said sorry, not a good time, and she was very rude back. She hung around outside the house and when DH went out to tell her to clear off she told him we'd better watch out as something 'might happen' to the house.

Nothing has, so far, but they don't do themselves any favours.

I’d invest in a Ring doorbell if I were you OP - or at least motion sensitive cameras. With ring you can answer on your phone or see who’s there without letting them know you’ve seen. And then just ignore. Also- Do you have a burglar alarm? I’d be very wary.

There are legitimate schemes for offenders on day release (ROTLs) from open prisons to sell cleaning things. I've worked with prisons who run them. They will be able to tell you the name of the prison and of someone who can verify the scheme.

Nottingham knockers

The people sayings it's legit. Is it not a horrendous idea to send ex offenders round cold calling? Some people are probably going to be less than polite and they're being put in a situation where they hit rejection after rejection. Way to make them feel good about themselves and their rehabilitation

It is a horrendous idea imo. Not just because it’s bad for their rehabilitation if they’re being constantly rejected. It’s also dangerous to take known criminals who likely have poor impulse control and violent tendencies, and put them in a situation where they’re likely to be triggered by being rudely told to go away. The guy I posted about earlier was threatening and would have attacked us if we hadn’t gone in and locked the door.

@Camperqueen our house is so tiny that the idea of a Ring doorbell or burglar alarm is hilarious! They’d hear our phones going and us answering from outside! I might as well just shout ‘who is it?’ through the door or look out the window. Our burglar alarm is the fact that the house is so old and creaky, it is physically impossible to open a gate/door/window without making a racket! If anyone broke in whilst we weren’t here, they would find nothing worth stealing. Plus it’s happened once in the best part of a year we’ve lived here and the area generally feels very safe, I don’t want to suddenly start living my life on high alert because of a one off, probably harmless, incident.

Google 'Nottingham Knockers.' It's a thing. They're usually thieves who're scoping the area for possible burglary opportunities. My neighbours were burgled after we had a load of them visit the street. Luckily neighbours were out but they took cash and jewellery and antiques (neighbours were elderly).

Knockers. Come round every year. Told one a few weeks ago I never have cash in the house "not a problem, I'll take a cheque". Surprised he didn't have a card reader. So, u can buy some of whatever they're selling but, as pp has said, its an opportunity to seek out the old, the frail, the vulnerable, to see if there's a dog in the house and to suss out whether its worth coming back unnanounced. They may look sad and alone but bunches of them get dropped off togther to scout an area.

Some do it to case for future burglaries. Sadly there have been cases of people popping into another room to grab their purses and returning to find the person has quickly popped into their house and helped themselves to something valuable (sometimes mobile phone etc).

I would definitely go with scam. Even door to door sellers with ID’s could be a scam, it’s easy to forge an ID.

gosh I remember these in the early 90s when I worked in a shop, they were always coming in with tea towels and dusters showing a card saying they were ex criminals