Warning from OAP conned by door-to-door fish seller

The 85-year-old woman, who asked not to be named, was initially quoted £400 for fish fillets worth about £10 and ended up paying £46 - still well over the odds - to the unexpected caller.

Now the shocked Mexborough OAP, who said she had felt pressurised into paying up, is warning others to be on their guard about the scam, which has been reported to the police.

“I think people should be aware this is going on because I think it’s fraud,” she said of last Thursday’s incident. “This man is targeting the elderly to see if he can take advantage of them. It’s frightening.

“He just turned up on the doorstep and said the council had given him permission to sell fish to everyone in the area.

“He put the price into his card machine and said it would be £400, to which I said: ‘No, no.’”

After one attempted card payment for £156 was rejected by the bank, the seller made a second attempt and had a payment of £46 approved - about four times the estimated value of the fish.

But moments after he left, the pensioner received a call from her bank highlighting the unexpectedly high attempted payments, which they agreed to cancel.

A friend of the dismayed OAP said: “She realises she had been tricked and deceived.

“It appears to me that this man was just trying to see the reaction to the higher price and imply he was giving her a discount.

“It all seems very suspicious.”

Receipts for the failed and successful card payment gave the name of the company involved as Northern Sea and an address in Framwellgate Moor, Durham.

Internet searches turn up no contact information for this company name and address.

However, the same company name and address were reportedly used by men who pressurised an elderly resident in Bottesford, Leicestershire, to overpay for fish last year.

A white Transit-style van was also used in both cases.

The man in the Mexborough case was described as white, in his late 50s, with dark hair.

He was smartly dressed and spoke with a local accent.

Another man was with him but stayed with the van, the OAP said.

A South Yorkshire Police spokeswoman confirmed officers were investigating and said anyone with information should call 101 quoting reference number 14/118446/18.