The Toby Gribben Show

With many of us eager to make our homes and gardens Summer ready, people need to keep vigilant on the signs of a dodgy deal, especially with crooked invoices and rogue scammers on the loose.

The two crimes - one old and one new – form the two sides of the same coin when conning people out of their hard-earned money for work that is either done shoddily or in many cases not at all.

Although many of us do our research when it comes to looking for tradespeople – 65% take recommendations from family and friends, women are more like to do so than men (75%), 46% use websites like check-a-trade and 43% look at reviews, just under one in ten (9%) would choose a tradesperson based on the lowest price and nearly half (44%) know someone or have had someone do work on their home that was such as poor standard they had to get it fixed. More than half of people (54%) have had someone knock on their door offering to do work on their home according to new research from the Nationwide Building Society.

Of those that did have to fix some unacceptable work, it cost, on average, £4,514 for kitchens, £3,300 for bathrooms and £2,861 for electrical work. Surprisingly, 15% of people thought did nothing about it.

Worryingly, there is a lack of knowledge when it comes to spotting these fraudsters with 35% not knowing they could intercept genuine emails or texts, and 21% of people authorising payments even when the bank has flagged it looks suspicious – rising to 36% of 16-24s, with 34% admitting to having been left out of pocket.

Rogue Trader catcher, Dominic Littlewood, has joined forces with Nationwide Building Society to explore people’s lack of knowledge and awareness around Rogue Trade scammers and point out how to look out for those dodgy deals to stop more people from being tricked in the future.