See, I’ve been doing my homework. Now that summer is here, we seniors should be doubling our efforts in keeping up to date with latest scams since this is the season when scammers are on their most active and that is an official statement from my friendly neighborhood policeman!
I have already posted about the “financial adviser” scam which sounds really sophisticated if you ask me since it is you who will go straight to the scammer’s trap and not you being lured into it. While the “financial adviser” scam requires effort to spot, the “alarm system” scam takes the traditional way of scamming people. That is to confuse them and play on basic human emotion: fear.
It is normal to fear for your safety as well as your home’s. This is your cocoon, your refuge, if and when someone breaks in, you will certainly feel violated. My personal fear is coming home to a ransacked house but I wouldn’t dare imagine someone breaking in while I’m physically there. For me, that is unthinkable considering my age. I would probably end up dead, either of severe trauma or heart attack!
Going back to the “alarm system” scam, the latest of the bunch works like this: a salesperson will approach you either by knocking on your door, or calling you and launching a full-blown sales pitch even if you vehemently refuse to acknowledge. They will have their way, be it by going out of their way to convince you, pressure you shamelessly, scare you out of your wits and/or threaten you at gun point – anything that will make you buy their products and avail their services. After that, they will be gone without a trace left! If this is the case then consider yourself lucky as you have been scammed just once and without much damage done.
Another intention of “alarm system” scam is to know how exactly your current alarm system works or if you have one in place. This is usually done by bad people looking for houses they can break into some time in the future. By “interviewing” you, they will be able to know your habits and how you use your current alarm system or if you still don’t have one in place yet. By posing as inspectors, they will be able to see your alarm system’s weakness and use it to their advantage. Moreover, knowing your alarm system’s brand and model will provide them the opportunity to study its behavior and plan their break-in.
Also, beware of salespeople asking for your alarm system company’s information. I have heard that a fellow senior was scammed by believing a caller claiming that they are now handling accounts for the aforementioned company and would like for the senior to renew their account with them to avoid interruption of services (whatever that may be!) Since the caller sounded professional and the senior did not see any reason not to trust the caller, the senior quickly signed up papers sent to her the next day by the caller. Soon enough, poor senior got two billings for the alarm system, one from the legitimate company and the other was from the scammer. While the senior can still squirm his or her way out of the mess, it is still a hassle and a complete waste of time.
