Just been scammed on my own doorstep!

Anonymous

Just been scammed on my own doorstep!

Every few months we get a young lad/lady knock on our door with a basket of tea towels, dish cloths, scrubbing brushes ect.

They claim to be from a homeless charity. Bless 'em they always do a really genuine heat-string-tugging pitch, and have I.D. So I buy a couple of packets of tea towels.

Tonight the same happened, brought two packets of tea towels - £5.99 each.

Thought this was a bit steep so I checked out the label more closely.

No web/email so I googled the name on the label. See here -

http://www.wimbledonguardian.co.uk/news/yourneighbourhood/4317383.Scam_alert/

http://www.beckenhamtown.us/forum/topics/the-organisation-for-homeless

Turns out it's a well known scam in South London. Not a charity at all, but a bunch of f*ckers on the blag! They drive round in a van and target an area a night.

Feel like a right gullible tw4t now. I gave him £15 and even said "keep the change". :roll:

stigofthedump

Reply to RICHIE RICH100 and you can get scammed on here too.

pottssteve

It's a shame as that sort of thing makes us all more skeptical and wary.

It's not much compensation but if karma does exist they're screwed. You can always hope they forget which areas they've done and pop back in a couple of months again.... :twisted:

StageWinner

Paying £15 for a couple of packs of tea towels is hardly 'being scammed'.

If you had paid £1500, then that would be a different story. You still got something for your money and it only cost you a few quid more than you might have paid elsewhere.


But I know it feels like you got ripped off as the money isn't really going to charity...

Anonymous

Ok, don't worry you can always get your money back when you get an E mail from Nigeria beginning,
Dear very good friend I need financial...........

Quids in,

Anonymous

StageWinner wrote:

Paying £15 for a couple of packs of tea towels is hardly 'being scammed'.

If you had paid £1500, then that would be a different story. You still got something for your money and it only cost you a few quid more than you might have paid elsewhere.


But I know it feels like you got ripped off as the money isn't really going to charity...

Tea towels were probably from a 99p shop, pretty cheap. But as you say it's more they weren't who they said they were.

More than anything I feel pretty daft for falling for it.

They come round every few months, next time I'll have a few words to say. Won't be falling for it again.

rick_chasey

RichardSwt wrote:

StageWinner wrote:

Paying £15 for a couple of packs of tea towels is hardly 'being scammed'.

If you had paid £1500, then that would be a different story. You still got something for your money and it only cost you a few quid more than you might have paid elsewhere.


But I know it feels like you got ripped off as the money isn't really going to charity...

Tea towels were probably from a 99p shop, pretty cheap. But as you say it's more they weren't who they said they were.

More than anything I feel pretty daft for falling for it.

They come round every few months, next time I'll have a few words to say. Won't be falling for it again.

If they're scamming, for sure, call the police just before you open the door and let them in for a coffee to chat more about their charity.

Frank the tank

Don't buy owt from folks knockin' on ya door, beit tea towels or religion.

Kenjaja1

A young guy knocked on my door a few years back - he was trying one of these sorts of scams. I was busy so told him so & shut the door. He then knocked the door again and complained about my rudeness! (Moi?!!). After a short exchange I insisted he get off my property & then told him to go away (Not my exact words). I then did what I probably should have done in the first place & 'phoned the police. They turned up pretty quickly and got rid of the scumbag.

After that incident the first neighbour to get hassled used to make the call - it is so much easier when you delegate the task of telling people to 'F*** off!' to chaps in blue enamel suits . Isn't that why we pay our taxes? :twisted:

It is a pain that so many people pretend to be charities as it means that you have to check so carefully before parting with any dosh. Most of the clothe collecting 'charities' are limited companies so I never give them anything.

I now limit my generosity to names that I know & have some trust in (eg Oxfam, NSPCC)

CambsNewbie

To the original poster.. Sorry, that's not getting scammed.

Scammed is the elderly lady who was scammed out of £75k by Travellers to mend her roof which actually fine.

Luckily a friend of hers called the police and we nicked them. Good result for us but the lady is £75k down. Don't normally get emotional at work but this.. F@@king disgusting human beings

Anonymous

CambsNewbie wrote:

To the original poster.. Sorry, that's not getting scammed.

Scammed is the elderly lady who was scammed out of £75k by Travellers to mend her roof which actually fine.

Luckily a friend of hers called the police and we nicked them. Good result for us but the lady is £75k down. Don't normally get emotional at work but this.. F@@king disgusting human beings

That's a fair comment, that's disgusting. I suppose the reason I feel scammed is not the money, but I feel so bloody daft for falling for it.

CambsNewbie

On the plus side you got some lovely tea towels out of it!

Cleat Eastwood

There was a man used to go round the liverpool pubs pretending to collect for charity......but not money....socks, and specifically mens socks. He'd ask for one sock of you which would be used in a giant quilt or something and you'd sign some form saying that you agree to him using your sock.

Few years later he was arrested....police found a load of socks in his flat.....and into every single one he'd *ahem* relieved himself. He'd actually jizzed into every single sock. So i'd check the quality of those tea towels if I was you.

AndyRubio

Don't regret what you did, you didn't know. Just cos some douchebags pretend that they're needy shouldn't stop any of us from being charitable. So you get ripped off now and again, so f*ck.

mouth

last time one of these tried my house told him i had no money at home but gave him an apple and a can of pop then politely told him to f*** off. he spat on my car so i smashed his face into a lamp post. didn't come to my street again yet.

R+P+K

CambsNewbie wrote:

To the original poster.. Sorry, that's not getting scammed.

Scammed is the elderly lady who was scammed out of £75k by Travellers to mend her roof which actually fine.

Luckily a friend of hers called the police and we nicked them. Good result for us but the lady is £75k down. Don't normally get emotional at work but this.. F@@king disgusting human beings

So, is that how these travellers operate?

I'm in NZ, so we don't have them here (well in any appreciable number), but we had that Big Fat Gypsy Wedding series on TV recently and they never mentioned how they managed top afford big weddings and flash cars.

MountainMonster

I don't even donate to charity, especially not ones promising feeding homeless, or desperately poor families. they normally take 80p as overhead costs, and the person who their supposed to be helped gets a piece of bread thrown at them.

But then again, i'm an arse, and only donate to people I know.

Gazzaputt

R+P+K wrote:

CambsNewbie wrote:

To the original poster.. Sorry, that's not getting scammed.

Scammed is the elderly lady who was scammed out of £75k by Travellers to mend her roof which actually fine.

Luckily a friend of hers called the police and we nicked them. Good result for us but the lady is £75k down. Don't normally get emotional at work but this.. F@@king disgusting human beings

So, is that how these travellers operate?

I'm in NZ, so we don't have them here (well in any appreciable number), but we had that Big Fat Gypsy Wedding series on TV recently and they never mentioned how they managed top afford big weddings and flash cars.

Oh yes and then people feel sorry for them when they get evicted for breaking the law.

Pikeys the lot of them are scumbags.

TheStone

Aren't all charities a bit of a scam?

rubertoe

I don't even donate to charity, especially not ones promising feeding homeless, or desperately poor families. they normally take 80p as overhead costs, and the person who their supposed to be helped gets a piece of bread thrown at them.

But then again, i'm an ars*, and only donate to people I know.


^^^^

This - i have Chuggers outside my office all day every day and they get on my bloody nerves

The amount of money that this govt gives away in Foreign Aid, there should be no need for any charities in this country.

Headhuunter

This must have been going for years. I bought a pack of tea towels and an ironing board cover from door to door "charity" people when I lived in Catford about 11 years ago...

gilesjuk

TheStone wrote:

Aren't all charities a bit of a scam?

Well some of them (NSPCC?) have really big headquarters in a rather expensive part of London.

Here's an announcement about a nice flash new HQ in Leeds:

http://www.morganlovell.co.uk/office-de ... $800423161

Charities are more like businesses now. Sure, they give some of the money to charity sometimes it can be 30% of what they take in.

OffTheBackAdam

Most, if not all, of the big "Charities" are verging upon scams these days, chief execs earning a few hundred k a year, big HQs, the worst are the ones that suck from the Euro teat, they get their money from the EU, then pay lobbyists to lobby the EU for more!
On the con-front, a mate of mone once confessed to buying from a bloke in a car park.
He was approached by this guy, selling watches. The pitch was that he'd come from a big exhibition & had stock left. Produced very professional catalogues & other supporting data, to show that the £200 watches, were really worth £500 or something in that league.
After my mate had bought, he took the watch to a jewellers for a new battery, asked how much it was worth and found out it was around the price of a reasonable Sekonda, say £40.
My mate confessed, that not only had he bought one, he'd bought two, one for his missus too!

Headhuunter

OffTheBackAdam wrote:

Most, if not all, of the big "Charities" are verging upon scams these days, chief execs earning a few hundred k a year, big HQs, the worst are the ones that suck from the Euro teat, they get their money from the EU, then pay lobbyists to lobby the EU for more!
On the con-front, a mate of mone once confessed to buying from a bloke in a car park.
He was approached by this guy, selling watches. The pitch was that he'd come from a big exhibition & had stock left. Produced very professional catalogues & other supporting data, to show that the £200 watches, were really worth £500 or something in that league.
After my mate had bought, he took the watch to a jewellers for a new battery, asked how much it was worth and found out it was around the price of a reasonable Sekonda, say £40.
My mate confessed, that not only had he bought one, he'd bought two, one for his missus too!

Those fake watch sales guys are all over the place in Asia - Thailand etc. I once had a "Rolex", "Breitling" and a "Panerai"... I actually really liked the Panerai, people used to comment on it all the time but then I dropped it on the tiled floor in the gym and the second hand fell off. The Rolex and Breitling cost me about £30 each and the Panerai I bought in Florence in Italty for about EUR30...

andy_f

Gazzaputt wrote:

R+P+K wrote:

CambsNewbie wrote:

To the original poster.. Sorry, that's not getting scammed.

Scammed is the elderly lady who was scammed out of £75k by Travellers to mend her roof which actually fine.

Luckily a friend of hers called the police and we nicked them. Good result for us but the lady is £75k down. Don't normally get emotional at work but this.. F@@king disgusting human beings

So, is that how these travellers operate?

I'm in NZ, so we don't have them here (well in any appreciable number), but we had that Big Fat Gypsy Wedding series on TV recently and they never mentioned how they managed top afford big weddings and flash cars.

Oh yes and then people feel sorry for them when they get evicted for breaking the law.

Pikeys the lot of them are scumbags.

Please do not let this topic degrade into a bout of nasty name calling, these people are honest Caravan Utilising Nomadic TravellerS and deserve our utmost respect.

Headhuunter

ANDY F wrote:

Gazzaputt wrote:

R+P+K wrote:

CambsNewbie wrote:

To the original poster.. Sorry, that's not getting scammed.

Scammed is the elderly lady who was scammed out of £75k by Travellers to mend her roof which actually fine.

Luckily a friend of hers called the police and we nicked them. Good result for us but the lady is £75k down. Don't normally get emotional at work but this.. F@@king disgusting human beings

So, is that how these travellers operate?

I'm in NZ, so we don't have them here (well in any appreciable number), but we had that Big Fat Gypsy Wedding series on TV recently and they never mentioned how they managed top afford big weddings and flash cars.

Oh yes and then people feel sorry for them when they get evicted for breaking the law.

Pikeys the lot of them are scumbags.

Please do not let this topic degrade into a bout of nasty name calling, these people are honest Caravan Utilising Nomadic TravellerS and deserve our utmost respect.

I wouldn't say "utmost" respect. I think it's certainly any individual's right to live in a caravan as a "nomad", however I expect them to pay their way in society and not make a mess as they go, which they expect others to sort out for them. When I was younger, we lived near a park section of the River Lea as it passed through Luton. The area was regularly invaded by "nomads" who parked up their caravans, made an utter mess, leaving behind toilet waste, black sacks of rubbish and "rang and bone" style waste which they had purloigned from local dumps. They paid nothing and did not assist in clearing up the mess. The council was obliged to clear it every time and eventually built up mounds of earth to deny them access, upon which we had all the do gooders compaining...

Wirral_paul

Headhuunter wrote:

ANDY F wrote:

Gazzaputt wrote:

R+P+K wrote:

CambsNewbie wrote:

To the original poster.. Sorry, that's not getting scammed.

Scammed is the elderly lady who was scammed out of £75k by Travellers to mend her roof which actually fine.

Luckily a friend of hers called the police and we nicked them. Good result for us but the lady is £75k down. Don't normally get emotional at work but this.. F@@king disgusting human beings

So, is that how these travellers operate?

I'm in NZ, so we don't have them here (well in any appreciable number), but we had that Big Fat Gypsy Wedding series on TV recently and they never mentioned how they managed top afford big weddings and flash cars.

Oh yes and then people feel sorry for them when they get evicted for breaking the law.

Pikeys the lot of them are scumbags.

Please do not let this topic degrade into a bout of nasty name calling, these people are honest Caravan Utilising Nomadic TravellerS and deserve our utmost respect.

I wouldn't say "utmost" respect. I think it's certainly any individual's right to live in a caravan as a "nomad", however I expect them to pay their way in society and not make a mess as they go, which they expect others to sort out for them. When I was younger, we lived near a park section of the River Lea as it passed through Luton. The area was regularly invaded by "nomads" who parked up their caravans, made an utter mess, leaving behind toilet waste, black sacks of rubbish and "rang and bone" style waste which they had purloigned from local dumps. They paid nothing and did not assist in clearing up the mess. The council was obliged to clear it every time and eventually built up mounds of earth to deny them access, upon which we had all the do gooders compaining...

(C)aravan (U)tilising (N)omadic (T)raveller(S) - I think this one went straight over your head there!!

Headhuunter

Wirral_Paul wrote:

Headhuunter wrote:

ANDY F wrote:

Gazzaputt wrote:

R+P+K wrote:

CambsNewbie wrote:

To the original poster.. Sorry, that's not getting scammed.

Scammed is the elderly lady who was scammed out of £75k by Travellers to mend her roof which actually fine.

Luckily a friend of hers called the police and we nicked them. Good result for us but the lady is £75k down. Don't normally get emotional at work but this.. F@@king disgusting human beings

So, is that how these travellers operate?

I'm in NZ, so we don't have them here (well in any appreciable number), but we had that Big Fat Gypsy Wedding series on TV recently and they never mentioned how they managed top afford big weddings and flash cars.

Oh yes and then people feel sorry for them when they get evicted for breaking the law.

Pikeys the lot of them are scumbags.

Please do not let this topic degrade into a bout of nasty name calling, these people are honest Caravan Utilising Nomadic TravellerS and deserve our utmost respect.

I wouldn't say "utmost" respect. I think it's certainly any individual's right to live in a caravan as a "nomad", however I expect them to pay their way in society and not make a mess as they go, which they expect others to sort out for them. When I was younger, we lived near a park section of the River Lea as it passed through Luton. The area was regularly invaded by "nomads" who parked up their caravans, made an utter mess, leaving behind toilet waste, black sacks of rubbish and "rang and bone" style waste which they had purloigned from local dumps. They paid nothing and did not assist in clearing up the mess. The council was obliged to clear it every time and eventually built up mounds of earth to deny them access, upon which we had all the do gooders compaining...

(C)aravan (U)tilising (N)omadic (T)raveller(S) - I think this one went straight over your head there!!

Oh.... Yes!