White Van Man Scam - another one

vax2002

Years ago one of the "fine upstanding members of the travelling community" bought some pallets that were worth £3 from the yard we were clearing , around a hundred for £100, after he had left we noticed the money was snide !
Whilst we argued in pulls another fine member of the travelling community selling battery drills he had left over from a delivery for £25, my mate says, sent by the virgin mary herself, of course we will have 4....

P*****off

jc808 wrote: »

Correct - except insofar as it does

Well when I reported it to the police they told me that no crime had been committed unless they had a report of a stolen mattress-they didn't. So maybe you know something I or the police don't.

skiddlydiddly

My brothers mate had a similar scam pulled recently, thought he was buying cheap tobacco and ended up with 5 loaves of bread.Almost parabylic.

Flat_Eric

mikey72 wrote: »

And the £100 cheque can easily become £199 by the time it's cashed.

JuniorSherlock wrote: »

That's what got me stumped, thinking about what their scam could be. You could see the mattresses, they were labelled and looked genuine enough. The guy offered to take a cheque, which we could stop if they turned out to be fake, so what was the catch exactly?

I need to convince my husband that we did the right thing in turning the guy away but he's just peeved off that he didn't get his sooper dooper mattress (we do actually need a new mattress).

It would be interesting to know whether your husband would have been offered a pen by the white van man to fill out the cheque? I remember from the Real Hustle that the proffered pen was one of those pens that you could rub out so when the cheque had been handed over, and the person who wrote the cheque had long gone, the cheque was rubbed out and details filled in for much more than the person had intended.....

Namdera

Hello,
I was in my back garden yesterday when a man in a White Van pulled up outside, his van was advertised with Ideal Beds, although the website was www.nightsleep.co.uk, he said to me that he had a cancellation around the corner and his boss had just told him to get rid of the Mattress, he said it was a memory foam orthapedic mattress, he opened the back door to reveal a van full of different size beds, he said its worth £799 for a king size, i was of course dubious but thought for a £100 i couldn't really go wrong, he asked me to go on the internet and have a look at the companys website, which i did, it seemed ligit, i also did a quick search on google, and couldn't find anything about the company, so i decided to buy one. He gave me a receipt and a couple of cards, said if i knew anyone else who wanted one he would be in the area, well i went straight on the internet and found a forum dated the 04.09.11 that a man was selling these mattresses and they just seemed to be old ones wrapped in new material, i phoned him straight back up and said my friend is on her way and wants one, to get him to come back to confront him, he said he was a couple of miles away and would call me when he was 10 mins away, half an hour passed and he never returned, i called him again, he answered and said he would try to get back before 3pm. he never returned, after reading this and realising i obviously was scammed my partner just went upstairs made a cut in the bed to find that it was an old matress, with some cheap foam placed ontop and then wrapped to look like a new mattress. i am devastated that this is obviously a scam and it has huge a fire safety worry, I am not sure what to do , does anyone have any advise?

BizzleBozzle

Had exactly this happen to me and my ex-husband 20 years ago when we were 22 and in our first house only for us it was carpet. A man in a van knocked on the door and said he was laying carpet in the new homes being built nearby but had been sent the wrong type - high quality carpet used in Building Societies and shops so very hard wearing. We didn't have the money on us but he said that was OK and drove my hubby to the bank to withdraw the money! That was my birthday present that year, horrible, nylon carpet which got stacked in our spare room. Our 2 cats used it as a scratching post until our first baby was due and the roll of carpet got taken down the dump! So sickening this sort of thing is still going on and always will. I genuinely was that naive, didn't think it was stolen, thought we were getting a bargain of some carpet that we couldn't afford any other way. Obviously in those days there was no internet etc. and the rogues were long gone by the time we told our family about our 'bargain' and they all said they'd been caught out the same way themselves years before! Think you will have to put this one down to experience Namdera I'm afraid.

loracan1

Namdera wrote: »

Hello,
I am not sure what to do , does anyone have any advise?

Not sure how much use it would be but if you googled "whois" and entered the details, you might find out who registered the website and where.

Esoog

Registrant: Hick Lane Beeding

Tells you all you need to know!

Also seem to be http://1stdirectory.co.uk/companies/81299_kozeesleep_beds_ltd.htm and http://www.kozeesleep.co.uk/

but there's not guarantee it was them, they could have just googled "beds website" and stuck any address on their cards etc

mummyoftwomonkeys

lol tell him even if it was real he didn't miss out, my husband bought a genuine one when we moved house, it was quite expensive and we both wake up with awful back ache every morning!

jc808

Guys, what do you think of this? Is it a scam?

A guy in a cockney accent and sheepskin jacket drove up in a yellow three-weeler today while I was in Peckham. The van had 'Trotters Independent Traders' on. It said they have offices in London Paris and New York. Ive tried looking up their website but I dont think they have one. Anyway the guy asked me if I was interested in a professional briefcase, as they had gone to deliver to 'Trigger' (I presume one of their warehouses?) but there was a problem. He said he had his brother and his Grandad with him (Although oddly I could only clock the 2 guys in the front of the van?) Anyway he showed me the Briefcases and they were great looking, apparently they are genuine "Michael Pierce's", hand built in Swaziland (In Sweden) and are exclusive. So much so, you have to purchase it and then have the key sent to you from the manufacturer (Presumably to deter fencing of stolen cases). The guy (Derek) took my name and address, took my £100 (Theyre worth £1,200 on Regent Street apparently) and said my key would be with me in 2 weeks, along with a complimentary toblerone and cuckoo clock.

Im a bit worried though, whenever I shake the case I can hear a small metal object, rattling inside, I do hope theres nothing broken inside it...