I've just witnessed a scam and can't believe it!

My Mum's neighbour - long way down the road from her - saw a van, and two men taking things out from her next door neighbour's house.
As she knew they were away on holiday, she went out to see what was going on.
The van driver explained that the owners had asked them to clean all the Persian rugs in the house while they were away. The neighbour thought it was such a good idea, and they offered her a good price to do it, so she asked them to take away her large Persian rug, too.
Needless to say none of the rugs were ever seen again. Neither were the contents [small antiques] they'd rolled up in the rugs.
Just shows the brass neck of some scammers!

How shocking that some think the situation that OP witnessed is not something anyone else should worry about or get involved in. How un British is that attitude! No sense of civil duty!

An neighbour had a phone call this week from a scammer saying he was from the Tax Office and that he owed £1100 pound in outstanding tax. He was to make an immediate transfer of the amount or the police would come to arrest him. Luckily his brother in law was there at the time and he took the phone and told them to f**k off. He is not the sort to fall for these scams but it was good someone else was there to take the phone. He told my husband about it and laughed when he said he was still waiting for the police to arrive.

Just had the computer scam again said she was from BT ,said every body buys through BT with different provider.
not with BT
Called her a liar, she said not to talk to her like that and put phone down on me. My sister got caught till they asked her for 85 pounds to put errors right, she then told them no.
They sound so convincing easy to get caught out.

Nfk I still pay in the odd chequer and you are right it appeared straightaway on your statement but if you look at the balance available amount, it will not have been added to that. So maybe that's how they do it - they would have a window of a few days before the cheque bounced

Solitaire - I think by getting his bank details they can then take more. Also - if a cheque is paid in, doesn't it appear on your statement before it clears? So it can be stopped, but still appear on the statement? (It's been a long while since anyone paid me a cheque.)

Just to cheer you all up. We have a disabled friend and were horrified to find he had married a woman when on holiday in Thailand. Thought she would leave him as soon as she got her British citizenship. However, this was 15 years ago and they are still together.

So many vulnerable people (especially the elderly) get pulled into these scams....it is so sad...sighs

Thank you for trying your best to stop what was happening x

Sarahhelehwhitney I didn't mean that the man couldn't have £1000 in his bank, what I meant was how could it appear that the scammers had paid it in to his bank and then for him to withdraw that amount...he had the cash with him...and pay it back to them. Presumably it was never in his account at all but only appeared as if it was? I really don't understand how that particular scam works.

The scams are becoming more and more sophisticated.

There was a piece on moneybox about this sort of scam. I am not sure it left me with great hope.

When I went to withdraw a large amount of cash recently in Santander, the cashier handed me a printed card with warnings about people who fraudulently ask you to withdraw cash for various scams. Presumably it was given to me to read in case the fraudster was nearby? Not sure if this warning is only given to older people or not, but it seems a good idea.
Well done for your intervention Solitaire

Well done for intervening it is such a shame these scams are still going on I feel sorry for the man perhaps he felt threatened by the person on the other end of the phone. It is just a shame he would not listen to any of you.

Solitaire.
Why couldn't the person have a thousand in his account? but in some accounts there are maximum withdrawals unless you give prior notice.

My father in law was once saved from a scam by his bank. He did not want his drive resurfaced but the scammers put a bit of tarmac on it and then asked him for cash. He hadn't any. They took him to his bank. The staff thought it all a bit strange as the people accompanying him stood out as different. The police came and he rode home in a police car. Sadly this became on of the incidents that lead eventually to him having to give up living alone at home and coming to live with us. That was 20 years ago.

An awful thing to witness but you did everything you could. well done for having the courage to intervene, many people would have perhaps thought it was not my business. There are good people around you just proved that

Yes, thats right Kim19 although the story line fizzled out a bit I thought when he turned his attention on Gayle.

Didn't they do something like that with Audrey and Nigel Havers as the charmer?

Perhaps this is a storyline that script writers could introduce in Coronation Street or Eastenders or whatever? If they showed a trusting, likeable character being charmed online by a fraudster or being excited in the Post Office as they send off the 'fee' to claim their non-existent lottery prize?

'There are none so blind who will not see'. I think a lot of people wear blinkers when it comes to thinking they have an admirer, truth is the scumbags hone in on affluent women with the express purpose of relieving them of their money.

"Ironically he was a retired Fraud Officer in the DSS."

Unfortunately it does tell you that anyone of us can be caught by these fraudsters. I have a friend who was scammed out of a very large sum of money by a man who, when he was finally caught and sent to prison had scammed five other women (five who had come forward at least).

I met him and he made my skin crawl and his cover story had red flags all over it but you can only say so much. All these women were very well educated, had held high level jobs and just shouldn't, if you analyse it, have fallen for him/it. I imagine different scams catch different groups and ages. What I have no idea about is how you stop these people.

Again, I believe, a generation acceptance that those in authority (printed letter) are right

I think that's true, my MIL was very trusting, although scams were not so extensive when she was still alive.

Graces, I'm sure you're right about the generational thing. My dad in his eighties believed that anything in the printed word had to be true. Even when I pointed out that he had no deceased relatives in Nigeria, purchased a lottery ticket in Lagos he still took some convincing. Fortunately we had moved in with him by then so we could keep an eye on this cr@p in the post and his email. We set up an email address for him so he could keep in touch with his grandson who was travelling at the time, within days he was receiving spammy messages from these despicable people. I would delete them before he had the chance to read them. Ironically he was a retired Fraud Officer in the DSS.

Solitaire the people who drew that old man in were kind, reassuring, helpful and his new best friends whereas you were just an interfering woman in the post office queue.

Sad but that is probably how he saw it.
Well done for trying, I hope the PO counter staff have some success in following it up.

My mother had similar scam. She had written a cheque for £1000 for this person. I only found out because we were at hers when a call came through asking if she had sent it yet. I made her tear it up. She explained that she had 'won' 20000 but had to send 1000 before they could release it. She hadnt even entered a competition. I phone police who forwarded me to a fraud team