Deaf mum exploited by locksmith

[DanikaHill]

Hello mums, lurker here, finally joing Mumsnet although for a reason I'm not thrilled by... Hopefully somebody can help me.

Today my deaf mum was locked out of her house so after googling Fast Locksmith London my mum clicked on this company that sent a man around to her address (her neighbour rang the number)... Turns out it's a scam.

After changing the lock the man told her hearing neighbour he would charge my mum £300, but ended up charging her £855.

The 'invoice' was a piece of paper with no VAT number (although VAT was charged) and a logo for a totally different company.

When I found out I called the guy who changed the lock (he left his number on the piece of paper) but but he said he didn't remember and to call the head office. I rang the 'office', a guy picked up saying this was a hotline not the head office, and that he couldn't give me the head office number and he couldn't help, and that I was inconveniencing him! I'll try calling them again tomorrow but something is very wrong here.

How these people can happily rip off a elderly deaf lady living alone is beyond me. It's so upsetting.

Does anyone have some advice for what my options are at this point?

She paid by debit so I don't think the bank can cancel the payment now.

What's more I was with her yesterday... If only this had happened when I was there... She's devastated but was afraid to not pay this man.

true but I believe in second chances

How would the op know who he scams?

maybe the threat of trading standards will scare him into honest work

true but I believe in second chances

These are scammers, this wasn't a one off, it's literally what they do.

OP, so sorry this happened to your mum. These scammers also target any lone woman, not just vulnerable, disabled, anyone is fair game. A friend had an almost identical experience and was too intimidated to report it as the “locksmith” scammer has her address and knows she lives alone. It’s utterly horrible.

sorry maybe i'm being naive

sorry maybe i'm being naive

It's an actual thing:

https://www.locksmiths.co.uk/faq/locksmith-scams-how-to-spot-rogue-locksmith/

The more people who know about it, and can be careful, the better!

This makes me so mad! My mum is Deaf too and was scammed out of £2000 a couple of years ago for some gardening work. They started doing it for her while we were away and said that more and more needed to be done. It didn’t. They prey on the vulnerable and it pisses me right off. Police weren’t interested even though we had CCTV.

A lot of people don’t understand Deaf culture and how Deaf people, while being mentally sound, have less awareness of things that would be obvious to the hearing community.

What would cctv show here as a genuine question?

Try do a chargeback on the debit card through your Mums bank . Report to police, involve age action and anyone else you can find to report this too

You really are, this has been a problem for ages, their whole job is ripping people off

I’m so sorry this happened.

Definitely speak to the bank and report it they may be able to do a charge back or might refund it.
Last year I got scammed for a roof box was about £180 (feel very ashamed about it now but at the time felt genuine). This was a bank transfer I reported to bank who directed me to action fraud for a report and they refunded the money and I had to read some policies and information about fraud. But the bank sorted it.
Good luck!

maybe OP could set up a go fund me for re imbursement

The pricks who did it. The state condition of the garden before, how they left it and who they were to try and locate them. They disappeared after getting money off her and leaving the garden needing thousands of pounds worth of work to fix it to how it was.

OP I don't want to worry you but check he only got her in to her house and didn't actually change her locks, because if he did she needs to call out a real locksmith and get them changed again in case he kept a copy of the keys.

ah I assumed they had completed the work apologies.

Definitely report but unfortunately I suspect you don't stand a chance of getting anything back. I'm very sorry for your mum.

(On a different subject, it's fascinating noticing who the pp is who thinks scammers 'deserve a second chance' when they've just purposely scammed a Deaf woman out of a lot of money.)

Nope, wrecked the garden and disappeared. Absolutely broke mum as like OP said, Deaf people especially, put a lot of trust into hearing people.

This was a few years ago but still makes me mad, as you can probably tell!

what's that meant to mean? I was trying to help OP

message the number saying because of issues you've had with your mum's cleaner/carers/social worker (anything vaguely plausible) you've got cctv installed in her house and have clear footage of everything he did and what he looks like, plus the neighbour willing to give a witness statement, so he has 12hrs to return the money to you via paypal (don't give him your bank details) or you're going to the police.

Honestly I'm not sure the police would really do anything but he might pay up to avoid the potential. If you get nowhere then plaster this all over the local fb groups.

The bank can charge back the amount she paid until the company proves that they carried out the work agreed for the cost agreed. I doubt they can justify the increase from £300 to more than £800

He may not have paypal. What then? Just give the account numbee and sort code

Utter scum. The going market rate for emergency locksmiths can be reasonably lucrative for not a lot of difficult work as it is, so he could already make a decent living just working honestly.

It may also be worth reporting him to HMRC - give them his number and any other details you can relating to his online presence - for not giving you a valid VAT number, despite asking.

I doubt they take very kindly to people charging 'VAT' supposedly on their behalf, which never makes it anywhere near them. I'd assume that it counts as fraud/criminal. Let alone all the money that he is earning/extorting and never declaring to them.

I really don't think OP (or her mother) should "let this one go". Someone has, in effect, stolen a large amount of money. At the very least, it would be good to make others aware of the potential for being scammed. Our police force releases newsletters about various issues and, sadly, scamming, in all its forms, is one of the most frequent topics. They gather information about the scams currently doing the rounds and make sure people know about them. I suspect you wouldn't be quite so forgiving if it had been you or your mother who had lost much money.

Just in case you're not aware, you need to go through Citizen's Advice in order to get Trading Standards involved OP.