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Replies
Please be careful as people in the Hammersmith and Richmond area fell victim to this roofing scam recently when various men with Irish accents cold-called homes. Besides using the methods and scare tactics you described, they also employed the TrustATrader logo on their leaflets, shirts and Vans to give the impression they are trustworthy. In fact, they are not members of the website. Another common thread was the use of young Sikh and Indian workers who hardly speak English.
In one case perpetrated by P&Q Roofing Ltd, the victim was asked to sign a contract to 'waiver our rights to a 14 day cooling off period and agree for the above company to proceed work stated below immediately' (sic).
Has anyone in Alexandra Park been scammed recently ? Would be helpful to reproduce any leaflets, receipts or photos if any remain.
We and other neighbours just had a roofer going round and saying that a neighbour's roof was dangerous and needed to be accessed, and that our roof also needed an aerial fixing.He said there were listed on 'Trusted Traders' and another website and he had a card.
It's a bad idea letting anybody doorstep you and blag their way in. Always do your research if you need something done. Two of our most vulnerable neighbours were almost scammed repeatedly this year and last year by
1. a 'builder' who said he needed access to fix the neighbouring roof and shared chimney - he was almost given money for this by trusting neighbour - it was just when he wanted another payment method that the neighbour got suspicious
2. a 'CID' policeman in plain clothes with a fake police ID who said money had been taken fraudulently from the neighbour's account and that he needed access to the house and that the neighbour should ring a specific number to ask for help sorting this out. Fortunately he left the house when neighbour asked him to leave - but if he had not done the neighbour could not have done much about it.
3. internet email scam from HMRC saying the neighbour was owed a tax repayment and asking to fill in a form giving bank details, address etc. These scams are very common but not many old or otherwise vulnerable people necessarily know the whole scale of scams (we were able to prevent this scam at the last minute)
4. telephone scam (unfortunately successful) asking a neighbour to access her computer as there was an internet/computer fault that needed fixing (they then took money from her bank acct)
We are really struggling with this. How do you tell the difference between real and rogue traders?
Rachel,
How about some recommendations from other site members:
https://alexandraparkneighbours.org.uk/forum/list/tag/roofer
These aren't just for flat roofs! But we could do with some more - anyone have other recommendations for roofers?
These can be accessed from the big blue button on the left of the homepage, marked 'Tradespeople Recommendations' (it just links to posts containing recommendations).
There are subtle sophisticated building scammers around too, who'll probably also do roofing - They aren't as gross as some, but they won't be on hand if you need them to correct anything. They will probably have persuaded someone you trust that they've been around for quite a long time, even though when you check CompaniesHouse.gov.UK you find they've only been registered for only a year or so. Their card will have a business address (like in a trading estate on Colney Hatch Lane), but when you check that address on something like Endole, you'll find they aren't listed as being any longer there, if they were ever there at all. They will tell you about family and family values, all of which may be blarney (and in my experience, some of them have spoken in a British Isles regional accent that is often associated with blarney in people's minds).
The ones that semi-scammed me (and did worse to my neighbour who originally recommended them to me) are just about to disappear from the Companies House website. Another group working in Grove Avenue just at the begining of the first lockdown seemed to me to be the same sort of people speaking in the same sort of accent and employing the same sort of methods - They were certainly no longer at their premises in Colney Hatch Lane.
I think there are several, some of them have unmarked white vans. The police are interested in talking to them if you can let them know while the vans are there.
Many thanks, Jane, very useful. Is this somebody going by the name of Supreme Roofing? Or are there several ?! We had a warning about SR in the summer:
https://alexandraparkneighbours.org.uk/forum/rogue-roofer-supreme-r...
This is a very timely reminder - thank you for posting Jane.