Agreed.
Unfortunately, there are many parasites in society that would be glad to rip off an elderly person, and sleep like a baby afterwards.
Do you feel sorry for ripped-off customer?
- Thread starter MeldrewsMate
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Unfortunately, there are many parasites in society that would be glad to rip off an elderly person, and sleep like a baby afterwards.
Some local councils, maintain a list of reliable, and responsible traders.
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Problem is that the conmen prey on this too, often pretending to be affiliated with these bodies to gain trust.
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I feel like there must be mitigations possible for that too..
Such as?
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Oh crumbs, I wasn't thinking to get into designing the entire system right here and now, but how about something like a council version of checkatrade that is open and transparently run and only matches vetted and trustworthy trades with jobs that have been reviewed by a council employee (who is perhaps a retired or semi retired respected trade themselves) , and have the person requesting the work follow a process to ensure that any person who turns up is truly who they say they are (anyone who turns up must have valid id and quote a password chosen by the homeowner when they requested the job)
Something like building control, ie a service you pay for to ensure it's done right, but more with an angle of making sure the old dear isn't taken for a ride
Something like building control, ie a service you pay for to ensure it's done right, but more with an angle of making sure the old dear isn't taken for a ride
Some councils already offer lists of trusted, which goes some way..
We used to get them at the door, touting for work, but that seems to have declined. Then it moved to phone calls, claiming to be offering discounted work, via council/government schemes, to get a foot in the door.
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Some of this is going to be incumbent on the old person, to eg not receive a call "from the bank saying they've had a security breach and need to move all their money into another account" and swallow it hook, line and sinker
It seems like it should be possible to enable people savvy enough to instruct building work, to resist scams - all we need to do is get them to communicate with a trusted person first- which I suppose is kinda like going to a doctor
It seems like it should be possible to enable people savvy enough to instruct building work, to resist scams - all we need to do is get them to communicate with a trusted person first- which I suppose is kinda like going to a doctor
And be the council the one handling the money.
Take from the landlord and once job is completed satisfactorily, pay the contractor.
So there won't be rusty tools left on site after a big chunk of money is paid.
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May I point out that being old does not automatically mean you suddenly become gullible.
In some cases, I would suggest it can..
You are much less up to date on the value of money, and the cost of things - maybe born in a time, when a decent new car, might cost much less than £1000, and a weekly food shop just a pound or two.
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"You are much less up to date....".
Speak for yourself. I am certainly not "much less up-to-date".
You need to be regularly purchasing the same thing(s), to be up-to-date. Some things, you only buy once in a lifetime, such as the guy in the other thread, paying for a roof repair.
It's fine to suggest checking prices, shopping around, but the above guy sounded to be pretty much over a barrel for the works completion.
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I don't think that's the reason.
Senility plays a very good part on this sort of scam.
