London council advising not to give money to beggars

I'd back Jiffy's statement.

During my 'consumer adviser' days I met this sort of thing very frequently. It was certainly more than the 'exception'. Outside of 'consumer advice' this was also the case with customers at work as well. It still wasn't a high percentage but it was significant enough to be noticeable.

 

I no longer give any money to beggars anymore.. Instead I give to the Salvation Army.. If you give money today it seems you re fuelling drink, drug, gambling or con artists in their habits..

Gone are the days when we had tramps who really loved a good meal and a cup of tea or whatever and were not rude or abusive or and this is the worst.. That's not enough was a remark from the last one I gave £1 too.. So no sadly no more....

I know there are genuine cases out there but we no longer know who are and who are not genuine but I ask them to go to the Salvation Army or like hostel...

 

This brings us into the realms of what number is of significance.

I would expect a fairly high number of people to be involved with my consumer work so, although a fair percentage of them were caught in that situation, it can't be used as a yardstick.

In my own work, totally outside of consumer work, even a few customers per month mentioning it to me would be of significance - and there were, regularly, more than that!

Just because you have not heard of many cases doesn't mean to say that it doesn't happen. I know that statistics don't really show much but if only 0.01% of the population were conned, or attempted to be conned, by people they know it would be well over 6,000. That would also mean that another 6,000 would have been doing the conning.

The national estimate of total money conned out of people in this country (friends, acquaintances, supposedly trustworthy people and strangers) is 3.5 billion pounds each year. That doesn't take into account the amount of times that attempts are made and failed.

Just because this happens doesn't mean that those people don't have a bright and positive outlook. It just means that they have become more cautious in certain circumstances.

 

I take it you mean people who drink too much tea??

 

I think that you may have a slightly uninformed view on the matter of fraud, and confidence tricksters, Rosebay. My experiences in working for Crown Courts and their Judges brought me into close contact with innumerable court cases where family, friends, had been subject to fraud and confidence trickery by family and friends. Money is a very powerful corrupter which can be devastating to people easily led astray. I have learnt over time [my lifetime] that on the rare occasion of lending/loaning monies to family or friends to [mentally] write it off.
That reminds me...........I loaned a colleague in the RAF £5 back in the 60's and never got it back.............I wonder where he is now??

 

I think you're reading far beyond peoples terminology and meaning, Rosebay, to the point of taking it too literally. That is making other people scratch their heads over your interpretation of what was actually meant