I’ve just been scammed

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I saw some guys with ladders in next door’s yard, then bloke knocked on offering to clear my guttering too. I agreed and - I am so stupid - paid when he knocked back on only 15 mins later.

I cannot believe how stupid I’ve been - I’m normally super conscious of this sort of thing - but I was mid phone calls, in a rush, have been having other work done, and it just sounded straight forward - he gave me a business card blah blah. Anyway, as soon as they’d left I knew it was wrong but too late.

I’m utterly embarrassed and furious with myself but am also now worried.

AIBU to think they were scoping out my house/stupid people and now I’m going to be a target? I don’t really know what to do.

I’m confident the business card is fake - have looked up all the details and can’t find anything online, tho haven’t tried the mobile number.

Please don’t just reply to tell me how foolish I’ve been - I absolutely know that.

So sorry, it does make your heart sink. I waited two years for the company to come to do mine at my newly downsized to bungalow. I waited as it was a nice young man who'd done ours at the house when my husband was alive.

He sent someone I'd never seen before, very friendly and chatty. Gave him a coke and said to knock when he'd finished, he didn't take long, he knocked and said did Andrew say the charge and I said no - so he said £50. I was shocked it was so much as I'm only partially guttered due to the flat roof.

A few months later the builder that was replacing the soffits and gutters had a cancellation and came unexpectedly. When he took the old guttering down it was solid with soil and moss.

Chatty man hadn't done anything except climb the ladder and chat, it's not unusual that older lone women like me have this experience.

It's £70, hopefully not your life savings.

Learn from it and move on.

I'm sorry this happened OP. A similar thing happened to my (very shrewd usually) sister.

She said she was so frustrated with herself. She didn't see or hear from them again, they took her £100 and scarpered. She paid cash though so there was literally no come back.

It happens, I hope your bank can help but otherwise chalk it up to experience.
I'm sorry this happened.

It's a bit of a rubbish scam if you've paid by bank transfer as it means they're identifiable

Have you actually checked the guttering?

Long ago, after a similar experience, I made a vow that I would never, ever, buy anything from someone who approached me at my door, in the street or on the phone. Just having that rule has saved a considerable amount of time and worry.

We've had loads of blokes round recently Knocking on my door offering to clear gutters, gardens etc. I always just say no, not being rude but if they had a great business and reputation they wouldn't have to be going round houses pestering people all day. I prefer to research and contact people myself for any of these jobs.

I got done for £600. They saw me coming a mile off.

Don’t be so hard on yourself, it happens to the best of us! It’s a lesson learnt, albeit the hard way. Just be thankful it’s only £70.

Bastards

£70 to clear guttering!!! Even if they had done it OP you'd have been scammed! It's normally £20

That's a bargain, I paid £120 for my gutters four years ago.

You need to put it on Facebook yourself now

Sorry to hear this OP,

We have been caught out similarly. A chap knocked the door and said he worked in building etc and as it was out of season he was at a loose end - any jobs we wanted doing? Gutters/chimney etc. He wanted £50 for clearing gutters, £50 pointing a chimney. We booked him in.

He turned up. Did nowt - no tools, no hose, no ladder, sat in his car on the phone for a bit. Asked for his money. Started telling us other jobs he thought needed doing. We said we had no more money and that was that. Horrible experience and I would also encourage people to do nothing based on a cold call at the door. Good tradespeople/handypeople are busy and get loads of work through word of mouth and recommendations. They don't need to cold call.

At a similar time to the above scam I fell for a chap knocked my door with another chap nearby and said my dog has got into your garden do you have a bit of rope or something that I can catch him with?

At the time we had no secure side gate so I kept the back doors of the house locked and the front is a Yale that locks automatically so I remember saying "Hold on while I get a key else I will be locked out". I went out and got a bit of old tow rope from the garage (locked with a padlock) they caught the dog and went away. I said don't bother bringing the rope back it's not necessary and that was that.

This was a long time ago and it never dawned on me at the time that it was a scam, but now I think that it was as I think if your dog ran off and you went to look for it you would take it's lead - or that two chaps between them would probably have a belt that they could use. I think if I had popped out to get rope from the garage leaving the house insecure then the second bloke would have nipped in to try to do a handbag snatch or similar. Gives me the creeps to think about it.

This ☝🏻

These types of men and we can all guess who they are😉
almost always have a packet of grass seed in their pockets to sprinkle into your gutters

Any tradesman that expects to be paid before doing the job is a scammer. Sorry that happened to you. £70 to clear gutters is steep! Every year we get the same type asking ‘if the conifers need cutting down’ and I’ve been tempted to say yes!

Who are they?

Why did you pay him? Sorry but that’s on you.

@TRULYSCRUMPTIOUSME I've reported your post. I'm also Irish. There are many honorable respectable members of the Irish Travelling Community and inferring that the men who may have scammed OP were definitely travellers is completely unacceptable.

Side note: No thanks my husband sees to all that.. what decade are YOU living in?! Can OP not 'see to it' herself?

Awful post.

it’s an awful feeling when you know you have been scammed. I was newly widowed, at the tail end of the first lockdown and was worried about a particular job that needed doing. Man came and talked the talk, very plausible, knew my husband and had done similar work for him before, so he said. I said go ahead. He said they’d do the work and invoice me. Sounded genuine. He wasn’t, work wasn’t and I paid a lot more than £70. I was so upset, I felt I’d let my husband down because he would never have been duped.
Hard lesson to learn but it won’t happen again. I am very suspicious of all tradesmen now unfortunately.

Why do you think?
If you really use your imagination can you get there?