Drive way Cleaning scam - worried of repercussions

[FTMaz]

Hi all
cant believe I am writing this because of stupid myself and my partner have been.

we have just been scammed by travellers who knocked on the door to clean our drive. My partner is less ‘streetwise’ shall we say than me and he agreed £350 to clean the drive (it normally costs us around £450) with it needing doing he agreed and he noticed they were doing others in the street too. The man doing it knocked the door and then asked if we wanted the back doing, my partner agreed as the drive looked good.

anyway long story short at the end of cleaning they asked for £3000, my partner refused and they started making comments about the cars, my partners watch and the house which they would have clear view of from the back as is is all bifolds. my partner was talking to them for about 45 minutes about not be willing to pay the price whilst a van of 3 men drove up and down the street. My partner paid them £1200 which is obviously ridiculous but he said for the sake of them going away he would rather pay it ( we have a baby in the house too)

now before people tell me how stupid we’ve been trust me I know. But I am now extremely worried they will come back or worse break into the house. In my work I have worked with many traveller families and I have always found them to be decent people (albeit in my line of work they would require my help) and therefore I have never had a negative view of them or believe what people say. However after this I am now worried. Has anyone fell for a similar scam and did it just end there? A friend of mine said paying them was the worse thing because they will return and demand more money.

we have monitored cameras on the property which is a plus.

any similar experiences or advice please share!

thank you

Thanks for sharing your story, sorry to hear this has happened to you too.
Thats exactly what Im afraid of - any potential consequences if I report this - damage to my home, car, or worse.
I cannot stop thinking how big of an idiot I was when I actually opened the door and had a conversation with them. Absolute scammers and not decent people at all.
I'm shaken by this experience and actually ashamed to tell anyone. Cant believe something like this is happening in the Uk in broad daylight.

I live in a bungalow and I assume that cold callers think I'm elderly. I had a traveller knock and he didn't even have the grace to look at me as he was too busy shouting at another traveller about something. It was something about my drive or gutter. I just said "no" and he gave me such a look. I do think they just move on to look for another mark.

It's the same with window fitters pointing out what I need doing when I don't as they are new.

I now only answer the door if it's Amazon.