Mary Kennedy has revealed she was forced to hand over “an exorbitant amount of money”, after being targeted by scammers.
The 65-year-old hired a group of men to do a small job at her home in Knocklyon, but once she allowed them onto her property, they suggested they carry out more work.
Speaking to the Irish Sun on Sunday, Mary said, “I had no idea who these men were — but they did take advantage of me.”
“All the time they were drinking tea and talking, they were thinking up other ‘little jobs’ that they’d do for me while they were here. My jaw dropped when they told me how much I owed them.”
“I thought they were joking. But they weren’t. Slowly, it began to dawn on me that I’d been had. I paid an exorbitant amount of money for bitty little jobs,” she continued.
“I was a little bit unnerved and just wanted rid of them. It was uncomfortable and at that point you want it to be over.”
“I felt very stupid at the time — but you still hear about these scams when you listen to Joe Duffy. I love that Joe highlights these things going on.”
“It happened to my mother before she died. She opened the door, and got pushed in and roughed up a bit.
“I remember thinking at the time, ‘How could you let that happen?’ But I was in my fifties when it happened to me.”
She added: “I’d like to think I am more savvy and less naive now, but you hear of people being accosted in supermarket car parks by people looking for change for trolleys. So it can happen to anybody.”
