Fake builders cheated an elderly widow out of £700 and damaged an honest small business when they hijacked its address and used it to front their scams.

Bridget Maendl, runs postal and print franchise Mail Boxes Etc in London Bridge and has had to spend hours defending her company and explaining to short-changed consumers she too had been a victim of the criminals.

A lady named Joyce answered the door to a “charmer” offering to paint her house and claiming to be from a company called Property Wise Ltd based at in Southwark.

Two men spent an hour “fiddling about” in Joyce’s home the next day, then left with the £700 cash they had asked her for, promising they would return the following week. Much to her distress they didn’t.

This is a typical scam perpetrated by fake builders.

The criminals in this case created a number of fake company names – Property Wise Ltd, Active Roofing & Building Ltd and Citywise Builders Ltd.

The there companies claimed to be registered at the MailBoxes address and were not correctly registered at Companies House.

Bridget Maendl followed Trading Standards’ guidance and alerted Companies House to the fake company names being used.

The case is ongoing.

If you have any experiences with scammers, spammers or time-waster do let me know, by email.