Doorstep salesman have been intimidating residents by becoming aggressive when turned away, it has been warned.
Over the past week residents in Dereham and Fakenham have described how the salesmen have turned abusive when they declined to purchase anything, leaving them feeling shaken and intimidated.
One resident in Fakenham who asked not to be named said she was confronted on an unlit driveway as she arrived home from work at 6.30pm on Wednesday, November 1.
'While I was getting out of the car I heard him walking towards my parking area. He then stopped and introduced himself,' she said.
'He said he was an ex-offender who had reformed and he said he was northern. He then switched on his phone torch to show me a crumpled, blue bit of paper which was supposedly his ID but it looked like something anyone could whip together on a computer.'
She asked if the man wished to sell her something and he quickly invited her to look in his bag. When she declined, he became abusive and turned to walk in the direction of other nearby houses while accusing her of not wanting to help someone in need.
'I made a point of securing my gates as he moved on,' she added.
The following day in Sandy Lane in Dereham, Victoria Whitaker had a knock on her door at around 6.30pm and opened it to a man who she described as 'in his early 30s'.
She was given the same ex-offender story and when she told the man that she couldn't help him but might be willing to donate through an alternative means, he became aggressive.
'He shouted at me, asking why I wouldn't listen to him and see what he had for sale,' she said.
'I said I had two small children in the house and I needed to attend to them. He shook his head at me and flung his arms in the air and walked off.
'I think had it not been for the fact I had two dogs who were barking at him, he would have been worse. There are a lot of vulnerable people out there who would feel pressured by this man.'
Similar accounts have been reported in Lowestoft.
If you receive a suspicious knock at your door, inform police on 101.
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