You hear a lot of warnings about online scams these days, we’ve all had an email telling us that we’ve won millions of dollars, just put your bank details in to claim it. You wouldn’t think anybody would fall for that but they do. These online scams are a relatively new thing in the last decade or so, but they had a predecessor; the old-fashioned door to door scam. With so much focus on online scams, the door to door scammers are often overlooked. But they’re out there and you could very easily fall victim to one if you don’t know how to spot the signs and protect yourself. We’re here to help you do just that.
Protecting your home generally is the first step to keeping your family safe. Having a peephole camera on the house is a great idea. You can see exactly who is at the door and whether they seem to be wearing any official id badges etc. There’s a lot of different ones on the market so check out Spy Cameras Reviewed to find the best. If you can identify a possible scammer without opening the door, it gives you the chance to report it without them running off. It’s also worth getting security cameras for the home generally because a lot of door to door scammers are trying to case your house before burgling it.
Once you’ve protected your home, you need to make yourself aware of some of the most common scams at the moment and learn to spot the tell-tale signs.
Free Security Inspection
This is one of the scams used by would-be burglars as a way to get inside the house and look around for ways in and stuff to take. They’ll knock on the door and tell you that there have been a lot of burglaries in the area. Then they tell you that they work for a local security company and they’re offering free home inspections to help you bolster your home defences. Once inside they’ll take the opportunity to look around the home and find any easy points of entry, and check what valuables you’ve got in there. Alarm companies often pull this scam as well, to try to scare you into buying their system.If you’re worried about the safety of your home, schedule your own inspection, never let anybody in if they just turn up and offer it, even if they’ve got official looking id badges on.
Power Outage Scams
The power outage scam is a very sneaky one because most of the time, you don’t realize you’ve been had. Criminals will target an area that’s suffered a power outage. They’ll knock on the door posing as somebody from the electric company and say that, for a small fee, they can turn the power back on. Once you’ve paid them the cash they’ll leave and the power will come back on. The thing is, the power has just been turned back on for free by the electric company, who don’t charge a fee for it. Most people don’t realize and think that the people they paid sorted the power for them.
As a general rule, you shouldn’t let anybody into your home unless you’ve set up an appointment yourself. Even if you think they might be genuine, send them away and call the company they claim to be from, but don’t use any of the numbers that they supply you with.
