This is Julie’s story of how she fell for a scam but it didn’t end badly.

A guy turned up on the doorstep – very friendly and convincing, saying his company were doing a neighbour’s drive and had some spare supplies so could give me a good price. In fairness our drive was pretty grotty at the time, and my husband and I had discussed getting it done.

Unfortunately he was away on business otherwise he’d have seen through this cowboy but I tend to believe what people tell me and said it might be a good idea but could I think about it.

I guess the chap took that to be a “yes” and not long after they appeared with tools and started ripping up our existing drive.

It was, to be fair, nice when it was done but I asked the neighbour the man had specifically pointed out as also having their drive done, and it was completely untrue.

I learned afterwards from my husband that this “we’re doing a neighbour’s drive and have extra supplies” is a very common trick.

As is the need for cash – supposedly because they’ve spent theirs getting supplies for the new drive and need cash to feed their kids or whatever. In this case the man was so persuasive about needing cash that I ended up driving my own car to a very public cash machine (he said he’d take me himself but I’m not quite that daft!), withdrew the maximum I could (I think £200 then) although he wanted more,

I said that was it plus I made him sign the receipt. There was an occasion when he became abusive, having discovered a bit of the pathway at the end had a drain or something he hadn’t noticed previously and he said he wanted more money to deal with it.

Luckily by then my husband was back by then and told him in no uncertain terms that he’d contracted for a job at a particular price and if he’d got it wrong then he’d got it wrong and needed to get on with what he’d said he’d do.

The man used a fair bit of bad language and threatened to smash up the drive he’d already done but for once in my life at that point I’d absolutely had enough and completely lost my temper (probably only the second time ever!) and I’m slightly ashamed to say that I gave as good as he did, even in the bad language stakes!

Amazingly it seemed to work because he calmed down and apologised for upsetting me and they got on with the drive, which was actually very nice when it was done, even if it did end at the drain where he’d had a problem, That didn’t actually matter as it couldn’t be seen.

I think my main concerns for other people, especially elderly folk, is the aggression and persuasion these people show and particularly the demand for cash.

I know some older folk tend to keep cash in the house and may well part with a considerable sum possibly without asking for receipts.

I’ve learned my lesson the hard way but now we have the perfect excuse for not having any work done – we just say we’re tenants and can’t do anything without the Landlord’s permission!

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.