Do you consider yourself intelligent enough to spot a conman?
You do, eh?
So did a friend of mine – until last week when he realised he was being stitched-up by a ‘landscape gardener’ who was working next door and offered to cut down the ‘dying’ hedge between my friend’s property and his neighbour, replacing it with fencing.
After negotiating a price, the ‘gardener’ said he’d start 9am next morning (a Thursday) using the conman’s mantra, “Can we have half the money in cash?”
The ‘gardener’ and his mate turned up late next morning, started cutting the hedge and then stopped, explaining, “We have to go, because the clutch on my van went and it’s outside Police HQ”.
When my friend, already smelling a rat, asked him how he’d travelled to his house, he said ,“We were dropped off”, and promised he’d return the following morning.
He didn’t.
That Friday afternoon, my friend obtained the gardener’s mobile number from his neighbour and rang him to say the situation was completely unsatisfactory and they’d have to re-think the matter. The gardener’agreed to come around at 11am the following morning.
He didn’t.
When my friend’s son and daughter heard what was going on, they were furious and looked for the ‘landscape gardener’s’ website.
No such company exists.
Monday morning at 10 the gardener had the brass nerve to turn up, saying he’d left a message to cancel their Saturday meeting.
He hadn’t.
Having been messed around and lied to, my friend angrily but politely told him to clear off.
The ‘gardener’ had the good grace to look sheepish, but still had the cheek to ask if he wanted the cut-down hedge removed!
My friend has now hired a reputable gardener, but still finds it difficult to believe he and his wife were taken in so easily by someone who is no more a ‘landscape gardener’ than I am.
He’d even taken out cash to pay the gardener, but, thankfully, never handed it over.
However, what happened when he tried to pay it back into his bank is another cautionary tale I’ll save for another time.