My mum was fooled by cruel conmen – it could be yours next
WHEN I asked why two plainclothes policemen had come to i nterview my mother for two hours on Friday, she was too embarrassed to tell me at first. But I got the story out of her. She’d spotted the ads in the back of The Lady magazine (which I used to edit – another reason she didn’t want to let on, she thought I’d be cross. I am.).
One said: ‘ CASH PAID f or fountain pens, medals, jewellery, silver. Will travel.’ Underneath that another said: ‘WANTED – old broken clocks and watches, cash paid.’
Now my mother had an old, broken watch and some time on her hands, so she called the second number.
A few weeks ago, two men (she was only expecting one, but it turns out they work in pairs) pitched up at her flat, where she lives with her carer, the sainted Yamuna whom God preserve.
They weren’t interested in the watch, but enquired whether she had any other things for sale, so Mama took out a little trove of cufflinks, studs and a broken gold bracelet, for which they paid her £200 in cash.
She also showed them a miniature Faberge-style egg, containing a lock of hair, but said it was not for sale as it was a precious family item.
One roamed the flat, taking photographs, while the ‘calm one in a suit’ chatted to her. My mother is a painter and they were interested in her pictures. ‘Do you have any cheap ones?’ they asked.
When they left, my mother realised the little egg had also gone. She called the police, gave details. To her surprise the pair were promptly arrested and questioned under caution. When the two plainclothes coppers came to interview my mother and Yamuna, as a witness, last Friday, she discovered more.
After the pair had left her, they went on to a 96-year-old woman.
While the one made polite conversation, t he other went through her drawers and pilfered a valuable brooch.
In fact it had happened many, many times, and their defence was always the same in each and every case. The elderly lady or gentlemen who’d reported them was a bit ‘vague’ and must have forgotten that they’d sold the item in question to them.
‘They thought I was an old bird too and I wouldn’t twig,’ my mother reported (she’s only 74).
At this point, as you might imagine, I politely called the publisher of The Lady and gave him a piece of my mind about the ad in the back scamming Lady readers, but the sad fact is, this‘ broken watches’ scam is only one of many ways the elderly are fleeced, all the time.
My mother’s in a wheelchair, and a sitting duck for telephone scams. She has an iPad and could do things online, but prefers to buy things over the phone, though I beg her not to and never to give out her bank details or PIN number to anyone ever again (yes, she fell for that one too).
When I asked about her gas and electricity bills, she said she had no idea whether she was paying too much but, the truth is, she probably is. If you don’t go through endless hoops online or over the phone to make very sure you’re on the lowest tariff, most providers will pop you on a ‘ standard’ i.e. high one, because they know they’ll get away with it and can gouge away.
THE Government’s not helping either. It’s just offered its first new bond online only (so you can’t apply by post or phone) which means millions of elderly savers won’t be able to avail themselves of it – which a former Pensions Minister has called ‘a very out-of-touch decision’.
People like my mother are being ripped off left, right and centre, and it requires constant vigilance from everyone to stop it (and those cash-paid ads, at last glance, were
still in the back of The Lady – I must have another word).
‘I’m very worried,’ my mother told me. ‘There are so many ways one can be tricked at my age, as one doesn’t know how things work any more.’
It’s not all bad news though. The police have got Mum’s egg back.
POSTSCRIPT to ‘Legs-it’: it’s been all about bare, ‘summer legs’ for ever, but both premiers were clad in sheer nylons at their recent summit, and the Scottish First Minister was wearing them again when she was tucked up on the sofa working on her independence referendum letter. Were they Pretty Polly, Fogal or M&S? What denier? When two women debate the precious Union, these are the big questions to fill our fluffy little female heads: not who’s got the best legs, but do Theresa May and Nicola Sturgeon favour stockings, support tights or even ‘shapewear’? (April Fool’s Day was yesterday, but you get the gist).