Avoiding Trade Scams in Eastbourne and East Sussex

Eastbourne residents can protect themselves from trader and trade company scams by learning the key warning signs of doorstep fraud, checking official trade accreditation schemes and reporting suspect traders to local authorities immediately.

Every October marks Cybersecurity Awareness Month, during which Citizens Advice runs its annual Scams Awareness Campaign (#ScamAware). This is run in close collaboration with the Consumer Protection Partnership and brings together key partners in the consumer landscape, including Trading Standards and the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade.

Citizens Advice tracks trends. It has found that doorstep scams are a top contender for the most common types of scam seen right now.

After receiving over 700 complaints a week regarding home improvements gone wrong - ranging from dodgy extensions to unfinished groundworks - this year’s national campaign is about workers and companies across the trades.

This comes with a narrowed focus on roofing fraud. Roofing scams accounted for 1 in 10 reports made to Citizens Advice over the 12 months leading up to August 2026. Citizens Advice Consumer Service logged 9,000 complaints about roofing work - spanning issues with weatherproofing, repairs and construction.

It has been found that 77% (three quarters) of suspected roofing scams involve using doorstep sales tactics as the usual method to catch homeowners at a vulnerable moment.

Dame Clare Moriarty, chief executive of Citizens Advice, said that scammers take advantage of the fact that most people can't see or access their roofs.

Citizens Advice Eastbourne wants to encourage residents to share experiences, overcome ‘trader scam stigma’ and report doorstep and online trade scams with confidence.

Cowboy builders are becoming ever more crafty, causing serious emotional and financial harm to our Eastbourne community. Local residents are being confronted in their own homes and losing entire life savings.

What are the main home improvement and trade scams in Eastbourne?

The main trade scams in East Sussex involve builders and construction workers taking massive, upfront deposits for unfinished work, fake council workers demanding cash and dishonest tradespeople charging inflated prices for unnecessary repairs. 

Eastbourne has found bogus tradespeople offering services such as tree cutting, solar panels, external wall insulation, paving/patio laying, tree surgery, gardening, waste disposal, driveway repairs and roofing.

During worker scams across Eastbourne, payment has been taken for work that is never completed or is done poorly. Purchase methods represented in these scams include doorstep cash requests, mobile card machine payments at the door, over-the-telephone payments, online bank transfers on the spot and online purchases across trader websites and apps, including PayPal Friends and Family.

Recent trade scams that happened in Eastbourne and East Sussex

1: Sussex Police are currently investigating multiple fraud complaints after more than 30 customers reported losing nearly £500,000 in a building scam tied to South Coast Construction (Sussex) Ltd. Homeowners paid large, upfront deposits for building work that was never started or was left unfinished, facing excuses and silence when trying to get through to the company.

2: Earlier this year, East Sussex County Council's Trading Standards team investigated a rogue roofer who carried out unnecessary, overpriced and substandard work. Two Eastbourne residents were charged £8,000 and £43,000 respectively, resulting in the trader receiving a prison sentence of over 5 years.

3: Last year, a rogue builder operating under Brighton and Sussex Roofing was sentenced to 30 months’ imprisonment at Lewes Crown Court following an investigation by Trading Standards into multiple fraud offences across Sussex. The trader targeted homeowners - including an 88-year-old victim who was defrauded of £16,000. The builder was offering emergency roof repairs on social media, inflating quotes mid-job and carrying out substandard work that an independent surveyor described as resembling “an act of vandalism”.

What are the latest trader scams active in Eastbourne and East Sussex?

Be aware of the latest trade and professional service scams active in Eastbourne and East Sussex, which currently include door-to-door drainage fraud, fake Christmas fair stall bookings and fraudulent driving lesson packages sold online. 

Residents across East Sussex should remain vigilant regarding these local threats:

• Door-to-door drain scam: Sussex Police have issued an urgent warning after fraudsters posing as council workers stole over £35,000 from older residents across East Sussex in June 2026 alone. The scam is said to involve two men knocking at residents’ doors stating there is a drainage or sewage issue in the area. They may ask for bank details to make a deposit to secure the services. Official council staff will never request your card or PIN.

• Fake local event stall scam: Sussex Crimewatch alerted crafters to a non-existent ‘Christmas Fair’ advertised around Stone Cross in Eastbourne. Fraudsters operated as fake trade organisers, offering stall spaces for people who would like to run a table for their crafts. Charging around £60 per prospective craft seller across social media platforms, they would then disappear. The scammer has used several different identities across different platforms. This has become a nationally recognised threat.

• Fake driving lesson packages: Fraudsters have been posing as trade driving instructors in Sussex, selling fake driving lesson bulk packages to residents through forged websites and social media advertisements, taking payment upfront for lessons that never take place.

• Fake waste disposal workers: Eastbourne Borough Council warns of rogue waste traders in Eastbourne. To avoid waste being illegally dumped, they are recommending residents to: ask workers for a waste carrier licence, check the number on the Environment Agency register and make sure to get a receipt.

How can you spot a rogue trader?

Eastbourne and East sussex

The main red flags of a dodgy trade worker include randomly turning up at your door, pointing out serious repairs to your property or grounds that you had no idea you needed doing, offering surprisingly cheap, cash-only deals you wouldn’t get anywhere else and avoiding giving written contracts or quotes.

In-person trade salesmanship can involve charming sales tactics and can include dropping off leaflets offering trade services.

• Cold-calling traders use special, high-pressure tactics and fake urgency to force quick, expensive decisions before you can do your research. For example, they may stress that they have to move on to another job very soon to encourage you to agree before you miss out. They might also claim that repairs you can’t see are dangerous and must be dealt with immediately to prevent costly damage.

• Once a fake worker starts a job, they may quickly claim to have discovered more unexpected damage that requires hundreds or thousands more to fix. They can use rehearsed information and take advantage of homeowners' lack of knowledge.

• Doorstep cold callers might say they’ve been doing some work locally, but they may not make it easy for you to go round and see their work. Good builders will be proud to show you their achievements. However, remain cautious: rogue traders can have professional-looking advertisements, good references and reviews. This can all make them seem legitimate when they're not, so always verify credentials through official trade bodies regardless.

• Once the work has begun, it can be hard to get out of. To speed up the process of starting the work, a rogue trader may tell you to go to an ATM (or for older individuals, escort them, themselves) to take out some cash while they set up.

• A bogus tradesperson may ask for large, upfront payments before they can start, such as for materials or scaffolding - only to perform dangerous work, never return with the supplies or not return at all.

• A doorstep fraudster’s van or vehicle can lack company branding, contact numbers or official logos.

• Be mindful of scammers during bad weather episodes. 'Storm chaser' doorstep callers have been known to take advantage of coastal vulnerabilities and capitalise on heavy storms along seafront areas like Eastbourne. They may knock on doors during or straight after high winds in order to state that immediate roof stabilising is needed.