Late night caller (wanting to borrow money)

[Damian H]

Warning to all. A friend of mine who lives around the Gowlett area was woken last night by a man knocking her door and wanting to borrow money. He said he was from a house in the same street. She didn't believe him - police were called but I believe he had long gone by the time they arrived.

Don't open your doors to people you don't know at night, folks.

[cate]

Totally agree, but apparently some people on here think that isn't the right thing to do. I think it should be extended to don't open your door at any time to people you don't know. Creepy callers don't only come out at night.

[eater81]

Very concerning, this area is in decline for sure. Now it isn't even safe to open your door at night.

[Loz]

Hooray! Eater81 is back and as miserable as ever. If they ever want to do a remake of "One Foot in the Grave" they won't need to get an actor in!

[DirtyBox]

do people still fall for this crap?

[jctg]

"don't open your door at any time to people you don't know"

a little bit OTT.

[helsbells]

Same thing happened to us (in the Nunhead Cemetry area) about 5am this morning. A man knocked on our living room window (light and TV were on as my partner was up) and asked for money. The story he gave was that he was a contractor who had his car towed in Kennington and his house keys were in the car, he claimed to live at the other end of the street. He asked for ?10. My partner didn't believe him so told him he didn't have any money. If its the same guy then he covered a pretty large area for one night.

[seanmlow]

helsbells -

This is funny as I have been given the same story before and I work in Balham! A man has stopped me twice asking for money as he said he had been clamped. It may well be a different person but you never know! The second time I reminded him that he had spun me the yarn before and he actually became quite nasty, so beware!

[Sally81]

jctg - I don't think it's OTT to say we shouldn't open the door to someone we don't know. I never do. I look out of the window and ask them how I can help, first.

Just because some of us take a 'better to be safe than sorry' approach doesn't mean that we think the whole world is out to get us either, or that everyone is out to scam/hurt us. But very occasionally they are and when you're in your own home, especially if you have children around, why should you put yourself in a potentially dodgy position? I think it's perfectly reasonable to not answer to strangers.

[Sue]

cate Wrote:

I think it should be extended to don't open your door at

any time to people you don't know.

xxxxxxxxx

I think I will just go and be a hermit in a cave somewhere, seems like a better option than expecting terrible things to happen every time I answer the door :-S

[cate]

Sue, the less you open your door the fewer moths you will have!

[Sue]

:)):)):))

They've all gone, hooray!!

[peterstorm1985]

I wish I hadn't opened my door this evening. Fool that I am, I thought it was someone in genuine distress and I had my wallet handy.

Surprise, Surprise, I'd been taken in. It was some arrogant *** from NPower telling me that he really wanted to save me money. He even crossed his heart - I joke not - and then pretended to get upset when I told him to get lost.

I'm not falling for that one again. If anyone knocks on my door after 4pm they'll need to pass a note through the letterbox giving all their details first.

[Narnia]

I watched a bit of Watchdog last night where the subject of Gas/Electricity suppliers cold calling was brought up, after a number of complaints. The solution is to put a sign outside on or next to your door saying 'no cold callers'. They are not allowed to call if they see this sign.

[seanmlow]

I put a post on her a while back about Npower. She stood with her foot in the door telling me if I sign I will have '?100 in my back pocket to spend'. The cheeky c*w even asked me to sign something, claiming to was 'to allow her to check my readings'. It was clearly a contract.

To get her to go away I asked her to come back in one hour when my housemates were back. Clever girl came back two hours later, saw me in the lounge having a glass of wine, and rang the bell for a good 5 mins!

[JohnL]

Are Npower still going around. They never give up.

BT irritated me more - talking me into moving talk away from Sky who promptly charged me more for having less. I reckon Sky owe me a few months free Sky Sorts too

No more listening to cold callers for me.

[DirtyBox]

I think it should be extended to don't open your door at any time to people you don't know.

I have just finished bricking up all my doors and windows, better safe than sorry!

[Loz]

Great tactics with electricity/gas people: tell them it's all in your other half's name and they handle all that and they are not in at the moment. In my experience, they give up at that point.

[Huggers]

Loz I do as you do, but precede it with 'let me just stop you there...'before they get to say much. It's a very empowering thing to say for some reason and puts you straight in the driving seat.

From there you can tangle their minds either with 'my other half sorts it out' or if you are feeling mischeivous, go down the Luddite route and say 'we don't have none of those new fangled things, we likes the candles'.

If they are from a 'local company surveying houses in your area' tell them youre a builder.

[mastershake]

the npower bloke came round our house yesterday evening.

after i told him i had no desire to change suppliers, he said, 'you should change anyway, all it means is a diferent company name on the bill'

great sales patter there

[seanmlow]

he should be on The Apprentice! ha ha

[Strawbs]

I got the knock late last night, said he was moving next door (I know for a fact my neighbours arent moving) and his van had been towed and he wanted a lift to the compound or some money, I promptly told him to bugger off and shut the door. Tall, slim, black, and was fiddling nervously with a blue plastic bag..

[james84]

What areas is this happening in?

[Marie81]

I always look out of the window before answering the front door, if it's somebody I don't recognise then I open the window and ask them what they want. It's ridiculous that we don't feel safe opening our own front door anymore but a neighbour of my Mum's recently opened her front door to a stranger and was punched in the face!!! I always get people I know coming over to ring me when they get to my door but that's because I don't want them to wake my guard dog. At least I have got rid off the Jehovah Witnesses, last time they rang the doorbell my dog ran to the door and started banging on the back of the door and I saw them run away as fast as lightening...I couldn't help but laugh!

[Strawbs]

Sorry I should have mentioned - Oakhurst grove..

james84 Wrote:

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> What areas is this happening in?