Scam Notice

Colleagues in the Shropshire Council Public Protection team have been made aware of a scam operating in North Shropshire around tarmacking. Experience from other areas suggests that its likely to be tried in other local areas, so could you pass on this information to your networks to raise awareness of this Scam

Trading Standards Warning:

Residents and businesses especially in rural areas be warned that there are cold-callers in Shropshire this morning trying it on with a ‘tarmac’ scam. They have been out at Ash Parva this morning but can pop up anywhere. They will knock the door and quite plausibly tell you that they have tarmac leftover from a job nearby that they can let you have before it goes off. Or that their machine has broken down and again they need to use the tarmac before it goes off, or something else that they think of. In the real world this doesn’t happen, they won’t have been working on a major road nearby, they’ll be waiting in a lay-by for their scouts to call them across.

This morning, instead of preparing the quote a householder had agreed to receive, a group of men descended on the driveway and begun work without permission and were expecting to be paid.

To make matters worse, often these gangs will quite correctly identify their Limited Company name to add authenticity to what they are doing. They will have formed a Company just for this purpose, for appearances sake alone. Don’t be fooled by this, a scam is a scam.

Anyone with any concerns or wishing to report callers doing just this please call the Citizen’s Advice Consumer Helpline on 03454 040506