Why are crooked businesses allowed to carry on cheating people?

I think the problem is largely due to a lack of regulation and the weakness of the law. Prices are constantly being driven downwards, and concepts such as fair-play, value and honesty suffer. People just want your money fast and don't care how they get it. Perhaps its a reflection of our changing society.

A lot of people often go for something because it is cheap and do not ask why.

I know many of these businesses are run by very fluent operators but one should always exercise normal discretion when commissioning expensive works like kitchens etc. Google any company you have not heard of before. Use sites like Checkatrade for builders.

But I repeat, most of all, if the price is too good to be true, so is the product and service and too many people forget that.

Good advice from FlicketyB . I'm fortunate that DH and I together can tackle most of the everyday jobs/DIY/decorating etc. however for bigger jobs or more specialist skills, I swear by checkatrade.com and have used them a few times. Unlike many of these websites you can't buy top listing it comes only from successful reviews from happy clients, so it's always a good indication of the quality/price/fairness of the tradesman is he or she is near the top of the list.

I agree Eloethan that these kinds of rogues (crooks really) shouldn't be allowed to continue ripping decent people off. Taking their money with little intention of completing the work or supplying the goods. I honestly don't know how they sleep at night.

Cowboy Builders (TV programme) does expose a number of these people and Trading Standards and the police do prosecute, but these low-lifes are very clever at staying just the right side of the law - and if prosecuted will ignore all prohibitions, move to another part of the country and start again.

The problem is that people do not complain to trading standards enough. There is another programme at the moment about sheriffs, called "Can't pay? We'll take it away." and they actually do. They impound cars and office equipment to auction from people who will not pay county court judgments. It's amazing how quickly people pay up when they think they are going to lose their cars.
Watchdog just shows a few cases. They are often then passed over to the police or trading standards to deal with, but you do not always hear the outcome after that. I always think when watching Watchdog that they are idiots for handing over all that money. Reputable companies do not ask for money until the work has been done.

I confess that when I hear many of the stories my first thought is that a fool and their money are soon parted, but some of the people cheated, especially where small building work is involved, are preyed upon because they are vulnerable.

It happened to a man we knew. He was vulnerable and he was taken for a ride by men offering to tarmac his drive. He gave them £20,000. After the event Social Services encouraged him to move into sheltered accommodation for his own protection.

These crooks, which they are, are prosecuted and jailed when caught. But women who pay money to men who have wooed them online and whom they have never met, or those women who paid money into get rich quick schemes, run by seemingly wealthy women who held glamourous investment parties to get them to invest, or people who buy kitchens or cars or holidays at prices that are a fraction of the price that they ought to be, without investigation, get everything they deserve.

durhamjen I don't believe in blaming the victim for what happens to him/her.

Some people are unwise, ill-educated, learning disabled, very elderly, or vulnerable in some other way. Is it then OK to call them "idiots" and imply that they are "to blame" for being scammed?

The funding for Trading Standards and many other consumer protection services has been cut and is now, I believe, accessed via CAB, which is also under-funded.

The NHS was created by far-sighted idealists who after the war and at a very difficult time, forced through against strong Tory and medical opposition the creation of our present health service, which has been the model for most of the civilised world. The problem is that the NHS has been too successful for its own good and now needs reappraisal, re-focusing and restructuring, but in principle must continue to provide cradle to grave medical facilities at the point of need, regardless of the ability to pay. I simply do not trust our present politicians, especially the Tories, to do all this. They are more concerned at lining their own pockets.

Sorry, wrong thread!