These can get you into a lot of bother if you are not wary.
Tactics
- One off customer needing an expensive item collecting from trade source
- Item being moved an unrealistic distance
- Change of delivery address when near destination
- Delivery to back of a van or roadside
You'll get a call from a Builder, plumber or similar tradesman asking for a part, quite often a central heating boiler to be collected from a trade outlet like plumb centre or travis perkins, the item will have been ordered and awaiting collection by you.
What is really going on is the scammer has picked a tradesmans business name out of a phone book and contacted the nearest trade outlet since it is highly likely the tradesman will have an account at several outlets in their area. They say'hi, this is fred jones, can i order a boiler on my account?' staff check account, all ok and item is ready for collection. you collect it, deliver it 100 miles away and the scammer has a £2000 boiler for the price of delivery. The cctv footage of the crime shows you collecting it so who do the police go after?
Protect yourself, if someone does call you asking for a delivery like this, find the traders number from a directory and call them back to confirm it is a genuine job for who the caller said they were, failing this get the trade outlet to call the customer from their records to confirm it is a legitimate order. It can save you a hell of a lot of trouble.
