Door to door fish sellers are about – Flintshire Trading Standards issues warning over scammers

Flintshire Trading Standards says it received a report from a local resident about two rogue fish sellers operating close to the Cheshire border.

The two men spotted in a white van are going door to door in the Blacon area cold calling residents in a bid to sell them fish.

It is reported that £40.00 worth of fish was purchased by one resident who then noticed that the company had taken £400.00.

When this was pointed out to the trader, they did a refund and showed the resident they had done this, but later checks showed that the amount actually refunded was only £100.00.

Door to door fish selling is one of the most common scams around, rogue traders purchase packs of fish from a wholesale fish merchant and then travelling around the country selling the fish.

They usually use vans which are not refrigerated.  They arrive in an area and call door to door selling the fish off in as large batches as possible.

They tend to target areas with a high population of elderly residents and use intimidating sales techniques.

The salesmen show a consumer a small selection of fish, and when they agree to buy some, they go to the van, returning with large amounts of packs of fish and go into the house and start putting it into the freezer.

The fish is often mis-sold as more expensive varieties, underweight and close to the use-by date.

It is often sold as fresh and suitable for freezing despite much of the fish being previously frozen.

A spokesperson for Flintshire Trading Standards said:

“If any residents are cold called by this company or a similar company we would like to remind you that buying products on the doorstep is risky, as you will probably not be able to contact the trader should something go wrong with the product and there may be safety and hygiene implications regarding the products.

Please report any incidents to Citizens Advice Bureau on: 03454 04 05 06”