Fake job leads and phone scams aimed at trades

Why trades are an easy target

Trade businesses publish a mobile number, answer unknown callers all day, take deposits by bank transfer and are used to customers who are vague about what they want. Those are good habits for winning work, and they are exactly what fraudsters rely on. Scams aimed at trades are rarely clever; they work because a busy owner is trying to answer a call while driving or reply to an email between jobs.

The wider picture is not reassuring. 43% of UK businesses reported a cyber security breach or attack in the latest government survey, and phishing was by far the most common type, hitting 38% of businesses^[1][2]. For those attacked, phishing was also the most disruptive kind of incident for 69%^[2].

The patterns that keep coming back

Fraud aimed at roofers, electricians, cleaners and gardeners tends to recycle the same few scripts. Learning their shape is more useful than memorising any single scam, because the details change every few months while the structure does not.

Red flags on the phone

A real customer can be awkward, rushed or vague. What separates a fraudster is usually a demand that moves money or information before you have seen the job. Teach office staff to pause the conversation when they hear any of these.

• The caller wants to pay more than you asked for, or wants to pay before you have quoted.
• They cannot or will not give a full address with a postcode, or the address does not match the area they describe.
• They ask you to buy materials, pay a supplier or hire a skip on their behalf before any deposit has reached your account.
• They want the job done urgently but cannot be present, and nobody else can meet you there.
• They ask for details about another customer, such as when you are next at an address or where a key is kept.
• They ring from a withheld number and refuse to give a number you can call back.
• They push you to move the conversation to a messaging app or personal email straight away.

A five-check routine before you commit time or materials

1. 01

   Match the address

   Look up the postcode and check that the property type matches the job. A loft conversion enquiry for a ground-floor flat deserves a second question.

2. 02

   Call back on a number you chose

   Ring the customer back on the number they gave, from your office line. For businesses and landlords, compare it with their website or Companies House record.

3. 03

   See the job

   For anything beyond a small fixed-price repair, survey in person or by live video call before ordering parts.

4. 04

   Take the deposit first

   Order materials only after a deposit has cleared into your account, and only for the job and address on the quote.

5. 05

   Keep a written record

   Save the enquiry, your quote, the customer's acceptance and any payment confirmations in the job file.

These checks cost a few minutes on a genuine job and stop most fraud cold. They also protect you against a less dramatic problem: customers who never intended to go ahead and leave you with unreturnable stock.

Reviews, ratings and fake feedback

Some scams target your reputation rather than your bank account: offers to sell you batches of five-star reviews, or threats to post bad ones unless you pay. Government research estimated that 11% to 15% of reviews in common product categories on e-commerce platforms used by UK consumers were fake^[3]. Since the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, fake reviews and concealed incentivised reviews are banned practices, with guidance from the Competition and Markets Authority^[4].

That gives you a clear answer to anyone selling reviews: no. If you receive a threat, keep the messages, report the review through the platform's own process and do not pay. Genuine reviews come from asking real customers at the right moment, which is slower but safe.

Protecting your customers from impersonation

Fraudsters also use your business as a disguise. A caller may pretend to be your office to a customer, asking for a deposit to a new account, or pretend to be a customer to your office, asking when the engineer will next be at an address or how to get into a property with a key safe. Both attacks rely on the same gap: nobody checking who is on the other end.

• Tell customers in your booking confirmation that you will never ask them to pay into a different account by phone or text, and give them the one number to ring if anyone does.
• Never give out a customer's address, appointment time, alarm code or key safe code to an incoming caller. Ring the customer back on the number in your system instead.
• Put your bank details on your invoice template once, and treat any later request to change them, from anyone, as suspicious until confirmed by phone.
• Ask engineers to carry ID and to mention a detail from the booking at the door, so vulnerable customers can tell a genuine visit from a bogus one.

Training the office in ten minutes

You do not need a course. Put the six patterns from the table on one sheet, pin it by the phone and run through it at a team meeting every few months. Ask each person to describe one odd call or email they have had since the last meeting. Real examples from your own inbox stick far better than generic warnings, and the habit of mentioning odd contacts is what catches the next one early.

Example: the offshore landlord

Example (fictional). A sole-trader roofer in Swansea receives an email from someone who says he owns a terraced house in the city but is working on a rig. He wants the roof stripped and re-tiled, will pay the full quote upfront, and asks the roofer to pay a scaffolding firm he has already chosen from the money. A payment notification arrives that afternoon for more than the quote.

The roofer checks his banking app rather than the email and sees no cleared funds. The scaffolding firm has no website and a mobile number only. He replies that he will need to survey the roof and meet a key holder, and that he only pays suppliers he has chosen himself. The emails stop. Had he paid the scaffolder, the original payment would never have arrived and he would have been out of pocket for the transfer.

If you think you have been caught

1. Ring your bank's fraud line immediately using the number on your card or their website; the faster they act, the better the chance of stopping a transfer.
2. Change any password you typed into a suspicious page, starting with email and banking, and turn on two-step verification.
3. Report the fraud to the police fraud reporting service for your nation, keeping screenshots, emails and phone numbers.
4. Warn your merchants and regular subcontractors if the scam involved changed payment details, in case they are next.
5. Tell your staff what happened, without blame, so the pattern becomes part of everyone's training.

Most of this is ordinary office discipline. Written down once and repeated often, it protects your time, your money and your customers' trust.