Nottingham Knockers

I have received a leaflet from Trading Standards re Nottingham Knockers - the young unemployed people going door to door selling household products.

I have also had this in from Rob Abell from Trading Standards and RBWM Community Warden Clive Dent

Dear All,
For your information regarding a disturbing new development on the classic Nottingham Knocker fraud/scam, they are now using hand held card machines.

Dear Trading Standards,

I've have been advised by my bank to contact you to advise you of an incident that I experienced yesterday, resulting in me being charged £400, for a few cleaning items on my door step.

I live in Windsor and around 11.15am yesterday, a young man probably mid 20's knocked on my front door and showed me some ID and said her was selling cleaning products, as he was ex-military and he had been given this opportunity for 2 weeks.

I said I would purchase a couple of items, as it was for a good cause.

Anyway, the items came to £25 and he said "you don't need cash, as I have a card machine". I proceeded to pay by card.

He held the machine up quite high and said that he needed to that, so the signal didn't drop out. He then passed me the machine to put my PIN number in and the transaction went through.

I asked for a receipt and he printed something and said its blank. He then said I've made a mistake and I only put the transaction through for £20, so I said I'll give you the additional £5 in cash. I only had a £10 note, so I gave it to him and said as it’s a good cause, just put the difference into the charity.

As I shut the front door, I started to feel very uneasy about the whole matter and called my bank. They confirmed he had in fact put through a payment of £400 and I asked if they could stop the transaction, which they couldn't, but they did say that they would be able to recover the £400 for me.

The detail they could give me about the transaction:

Company name - Morgan Wholesales, Nottinghamshire. Having looked them up via Google there's load of stuff about them!

The bank advised me to contact yourselves and the police.

The message to say to these people is “No thank you, we do not buy goods or services at the door”

Regards

Clive

Clive Dent
Communities, Enforcement & Partnerships

Please be on your guard !