Roof scams

lillynbuddy

Hi my first post so please bear with me

My elderly neighbour was approached last week by a "roofing company" who told her she has problems with her roof. They also knocked on my door, my husband being the nice fella he is gave them the time of day even although we had only had our roof repaired the bank holiday weekend before (by a trusted friend and tradesman). As I looked out at my husband on the street I could plainly see they were of a minority Irish descent (trying to be diplomatic here), and questioned why my husband even entertained them?

Anyway they knocked on my door again this morning and said they were working on my neighbours property, she is in her 80's and lives alone and wanted to know if I wanted the work done they had said needed doing to my husband last week. I told them in no uncertain terms that they had no permission to be on my side of the roof and that if I needed work I had tradesmen I knew that I would get to do it. To say they were perplexed as they obviously thought my husband was a soft touch, they weren't happy that a lady was questioning them!

I accidentally while I was talking to them locked myself out but thankfully had my phone, I took it out and started to ring my brother in law who lives up the road for the spare key.... strangely they left before my brother in law got down, he lives 10 doors away. I later found out from my neighbour they charged her, an old lady in her 80's €300 to clean her gutters. I think they may have thought I was phoning the guards as they never even went out the back to "pretend" to clean her back gutters the leaflet they left was Alex or something similar, very well dressed lads for roofers. This was in the Dublin 9 area.

Gloomtastic!

I had one earlier in the year where a note was dropped through the letterbox saying that 'Joe' had asked them to fix our broken roof tile and asked for €80.00 for doing it, with their phone no. to call.

They had fixed it but we don't know anyone called Joe. We never called them and haven't heard from them since.

Worst scam ever!

Curly Judge

I heard somewhere that they operate from some kind of compound in Northern Ireland, and that a fleet of them heads out each morning for the Republic to spend the day scamming old people and other vulnerables.
Anyone who becomes aware that someone in their neighborhood is being targetted should immediately intervene IMO!
Fit, capable people have a duty to make life as difficult as possible for these leeches.

Cienciano

This is nothing new. My grandad was plagued with people calling trying to fix his roof, gutters, driveway and garage roof before he died. The people will find an old person living on their own and keep targeting them till they give in.
They'll be persistent and very bullying and massively overcharge for very bad work that wasn't even needed.
Just keep an eye on old relatives and neighbours, asking if anyone called etc.

Hootanany

Call the Guards as soon as you see them thats what i do.

Hootanany

Hootanany wrote: »

Call the Guards as soon as you see them thats what i do.

Please do that.

Rotunda Shill

An elderly woman was robbed of 4K by these scammers, she was forced to write a cheque to the amount for cash. She was afraid of being beaten up. The guy cashed it immediately, the Bank has all the CCTV footage of the transaction so hopefully something will materialize. Advice for any elderly is to fit a CCTV pointing at hall door even a dummy, the best are the dome type with darkened cover that hides the camera.

tricky D

Mode note: Racially inciteful posts will not be tolerated. Such posts will be deleted, the poster given break from the forum and the thread may be closed.

Jumboman

lillynbuddy wrote: »

I could plainly see they were of a minority Irish descent (trying to be diplomatic here),

Are we talking travelers ?

The same scam was pulled on my elderly parents.

They will always start off the Scam by saying the are "working" on a neighbours house. They will tell you that they have materials left over from a "job" and for a small fee say 50 or 100 euro they can fix your roof. Then when they get on your roof they will claim that it needs a few grand worth of work done on it. They will say they can do it for half the normal price because they are already doing a job in the area but they must have the money up front ASAP or they can't do the "job". Its a real hard sell from there on.

If it was me I think I would let them do a "job" on my roof and then when they came looking for money for the "job" I would just turn around and say I never agreed to have any "job" done on my house. I would then tell them that I was going to report them to the police for trying to break into my house because I saw them putting a lader onto my house and that I had other witnesses in area that saw them trying to break into my house by using a lader.

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

Jumboman wrote: »

Are we talking travelers ?

The same scam was pulled on my elderly parents.

They will always start off the Scam by saying the are "working" on a neighbours house. They will tell you that they have materials left over from a "job" and for a small fee say 50 or 100 euro they can fix your roof. Then when they get on your roof they will claim that it needs a few grand worth of work done on it. They will say they can do it for half the normal price because they are already doing a job in the area but they must have the money up front ASAP or they can't do the "job". Its a real hard sell from there on.

If it was me I think I would let them do a "job" on my roof and then when they came looking for money for the "job" I would just turn around and say I never agreed to have any "job" done on my house. I would then tell them that I was going to report them to the police for trying to break into my house because I saw them putting a lader onto my house and that I had other witnesses in area that saw them trying to break into my house by using a lader.

Good idea. You'll come home some day and the next crew doing a job on your house will be the fire brigade.

Jumboman

The Cunning Linguist wrote: »

Good idea. You'll come home some day and the next crew doing a job on your house will be the fire brigade.

They are cowards they will only pick on vulnerable people. When people stand up to them they are taken aback.

tricky D

Jumboman wrote: »

If it was me I think I would let them do a "job" on my roof and then when they came looking for money for the "job" I would just turn around and say I never agreed to have any "job" done on my house. I would then tell them that I was going to report them to the police for trying to break into my house because I saw them putting a lader onto my house and that I had other witnesses in area that saw them trying to break into my house by using a lader.

Advocating breaking the law by doing the above is against the charter. Warning and don't post in this thread again.

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

Jumboman wrote: »

They are cowards they will only pick on vulnerable people. When people stand up to them they are taken aback.

Standing up to them is one thing. Trying to scam them back is different.

tricky D

^^^ Dealt with. Let's leave it at that, ta.

If any one suspects someone is being exploited in this type of situation, call the Gardaí.

athtrasna

Joe Duffy has done numerous shows on roof and driveway scams up and down the country, nothing new. Some people are far too trusting, others are easily bullied. It's up to us to look out for our loved ones.

Roquentin

people in limerick city doing this scam at the moment

Allyall

Looks like there's going to be an extra 24 of them back here in a week or so.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/australia-deports-24-irish-people-over-alleged-building-scam-1.2076836

http://www.rte.ie/news/2015/0123/675050-australia-roofing-scam/

Jumboman

I have yet to hear Pavee Point condemn this sort of activity.