"I've just come out from four years in prison . . .

[longwayoff]

Not me, the hefty young man who knocked at my door, started the above spiel, said "let me finish!" when I interrupted him and, when I said I haven't any money in the house, called me a cunt because I laughed when he said I could pay by bank transfer. AIBU to suggest these door knockers could use some training? Who are these people and where do they come from? They are always northerners and crop up about twice a year with a sob story.

My mum opened the door to one of these once and told them that she was hearing voices and the Devil was speaking to her. She's a good actress and apparently scared them off. She also scared off a heavy breathing phone caller that had been harassing my aunt for weeks by laughing maniacally down the phone, at which point the guy went "Jesus, there's some crazy nutcase on the phone" and hung up!

I have only ever had one, which buzzed my flat and through the answerphone I told them I was a Jehovah's Witness and that I needed to read to them from the Bible so we could witness together. I recited some made up biblical sounding verses for a while until I was sure they had gone, I didn't want them buzzing all the other flats until someone let them into the block without checking.

Lottie my mum also replies to those scam emails trying to lead them on, she tracked the real name and address of one of them down once and they ended up begging her not to report them to the police. I keep telling her she's going to get in real trouble someday with that and to just delete the emails but she thinks it's a bit of fun.

Nottingham Knockers.

I had this over the weekend, but mine had a ‘so cockney it hurts’ accent (I’m in London)

Started saying I don’t buy anything from anyone knocking on my door when he switched from nice fella to raging angry ‘just cos I’m an ex con don’t make me a fuckin criminal!’ Er, yeah, it kinda does 🤷🏻‍♀️

His ‘leader’ or whoever was supervising tried to explain to me that the bloke was a reformed character and just needed to be shown people could be kind and even if I bought one thing it would be a start. I laughed and said oh yeah intimidating people on their doorsteps into paying for shit they don’t want really shows you’re reformed doesn’t it. He started to get angry. Which is when my fella stuck his head round the door and the pair of them legged it 😂😂

Alright to try intimidating a woman but when a fella who’s as tall as he is broad shows himself they absolutely shit themselves 😂😂

@onefootinthegrave

'She's from the NORTH!' 😂

LOVED the Catherine Tate show!

Always northerners!! Wtf

Nottingham Knockers sounds like a burlesque group

Nottingham is Midlands, any road. Any soft bugger will tell thee that. Mun go an sort aht ferrets!

A man approached me saying exactly the same thing. I admit I was guilt tripped into buying an overpriced mini whiteboard and marker pen. He looked rough but was quite polite.
I don't remember his accent though.

Yes, thatwouldbeanecumenicalmatter Sheltered housing is often targeted by nefarious types. As the residents can be vulnerable
police share info with LA and health and alerts are be circulated

A northerner?

No wonder he knocked - probably never seen a doorbell before.

The smell should be gone in a week or two.

Yep and after this happened a unicorn knocked and offered to sell its poo....

Be careful.

My mum once had someone trying to sell her tread and what like and had such a pitch that lasted a few minutes. Someone else had let themselves through the back door and was stealing her cutlery. I have no idea why they were taking her Asda cutlery but there we go.

Some of the pp's need to read the link on the first page instead of getting snarky with the op. It's a well known scam.

I'm a Northerner,and I would like to meet some nice polite, Down South ladies on their doorsteps.when I call round selling my clothes pegs,and heather bunches,

it lends the impression that they have some sort of gang master putting them up somewhere and dropping them off locally each morning while they knock on doors.

Modern slavery, folks.

Hiding in plain sight .

I used to get these lads come around when I lived in the UK too - I was told they were bussed in. The one I remember most was a Scouse lad who reeled off his spiel without breathing! He wasn't remotely intimidating, and I'd buy a couple of things off him sometimes, other times not, but he never gave me a hard time over it.

Springydaff, that must be right, it's obviously organised. Poor buggers, we used to be a better country than the one we've become.

I always buy their stories and their shit!
Oops!

Had no idea this was even a scam!

I had a bloke come the other day. Yep he was Northern, but so is everyone to us as we live on the south coast...He did had quite a strong northern accent!

I've always found it weird that they start off with saying they've been released from prison....this one said the army actually which was a new one to me - Maybe he thought I'd be more sympathetic as there's an army base down the road.

He was quite pleasant actually, thanked me for smiling and went away when I said I wasn't interested about 10secs into his performance....

As other posters have said, Northernness aside, it’s a scam. Our (northern) Trading Standards department told us that it should be reported to the police via 101; they particularly target older and more vulnerable people and it’s linked to burglary.

Out of interest, what are they looking for in terms I'd scoping the house? I mean, what can they see from the doorstep?

I completely believe this is what they are doing btw, just never been sure what they actually learn from it...

Had a door knocker in London and i paid a fiver for something to go on the fridge which broke within 5 mins, but I suppose it got him off the doorstep pronto.

Nottingham Knockers - google it, stop being so sensitive Northerners!

Everyone is so offended that they were northern! If you live in the south, they will be northern. These people travel around so the southerners will go up north. They’re Nottingham knockers and they try to sell you goods to see if you keep cask in your house and to see what weaknesses your house may have. They also are looking for if you live alone and whether your neighbours are around in the daytime. If you engage with them then this increases the risk of them returning at a later date to break into your home. Please let your local police force know and warn others on your street to not engage with them either.

I live in Yorkshire and we had some at the weekend claiming to be from Middlesbrough prison!