Disgruntled worker or would-be blackmailer? You decide.
Every day, Demolition News Towers is inundated with emails and phone calls from readers. Some are asking questions; some are sharing photos and video with the wider demolition industry; and some are calling just to tell us what we did wrong.
But we received a message yesterday that started out as an apparently benign enquiry but quickly turned sinister and could – if you were that way inclined – lead you to believe that some low-level blackmail was at hand.
The sender of the email message had clearly been viewing one of the many videos on our YouTube channel but mistakenly thought that we in some way represented one of the UK contractors featured. The opening message was along the lines of “would you like to see what really goes on on your sites”. Since we have no sites to speak of, we chose to ignore this initial exchange.
Within minutes, we received another message saying that they would send us just a sample of the video footage they had. When the video – clearly shot on a mobile phone – arrived, it was almost entirely innocent – A worker in full PPE wielding a sledgehammer. Based on the innocuous nature of the content, we again chose not to rise to the bait.
And then, it got weird.
The next message said: “We have six videos of your company. If you do not respond, I will send them to the Health & Safety Executive.”
Of course, the sender could be a disgruntled worker seeking to make a point about the company’s site safety. But why send the emails to an unknown third-party rather than a manager or director within the company? And presuming he is a demolition worker – how else would he gain access to film these apparent discretions – what would he stand to gain by exposing these perceived safety lapses to the HSE?
Thankfully, we awoke today to find no further communication from the guy in question. But it did set us thinking. With virtually everyone now carrying a camera phone that is able to capture the good, the bad and the ugly of the demolition industry from behind the scenes, this might have just been a glimpse of a scam-filled future in which demolition companies (among others) are held to ransom by employees or sub-contractors.
Be on your guard.
