CROC rolls into the Maryborough Markets
16/12/2021

Every Thursday morning, Maryborough's Adelaide Street closes off to traffic and transforms into a busy market area in the heart of the city centre.

People travel from all across South East Queensland to sell their goods and the street is packed from 7am with eager shoppers.

This was the IDCARE CROC team's first attempt at a stall at a market and this event was also going to be unusual as we knew A Current Affair was sending a camera operator to film the clinic.

From the moment the Scream at a Scammer booth was erected, we had an influx of people asking questions.

It wasn't only Maryborough locals who were shopping for Christmas, at least half of the passers-by were tourists.

Questions included:

  • What is IDCARE?
  • Is your service really free?
  • Can you stop scammers from calling me?

While the shoppers were obviously interested in the clinic and a record number of brochures and cards were handed out, the best interaction was with the other stallholders.

IDCARE sent crews to have short discussions with the stallholders who were either concerned about scams and how to protect their business, or were in the middle of an incident.

Mr Whippy Fraser Coast, Robby Staff, shared how he was having an ongoing struggle with his Facebook page as it had been cloned and someone was pretending to be him, contacting all his clients.

A Maryborough stalwart, Robby Staff aka 'Mr Whippy', manages to give a media interview whilst serving his clients.

Initial concerns five hours for a clinic might be too long were unwarranted. This clinic was the most well-attended yet and the informal arrangement allowed in-depth discussions with shoppers and stallholders.

And as for the cameraman, he had hours of footage to choose from to compile a segment that led the national television program on Friday, 10 December.