Most people are quite vulnerable when it comes to the safety of their families,homes and businesses. This means that they could easily be ripped off by security scams that can come in many forms.

The door to door sales pitch:

Perhaps this is one of the most dangerous forms of rip offs and can even be more serious if the individual coming to your door is doing so to either gain entry or to determine if you really have any security in place at all. This person is truly not a security provider but could be determining if your home would be a prime target for a future break-in. His intention is certainly not in your best interests.

It is not all that common but not unheard of for some security equipment providers to send out a sales team door to door. A lot of companies are expanding their efforts to drum up business.

The first rule of course for your own safety is not to open your doors to anyone unless you know who they are or at least know they are a true representative of who they say they are.

The scaled up sales pitch:

There there are the true security providers who are well trained in the upsell techniques. These are the ones who will attempt to sell you everything in the store whether you need or not. If you don’t have some knowledge as to how security systems work, or what your specific security needs are you can end up with a lot of very impressive security equipment, but it really serves no purpose for your specific security needs.

The I really don’t know what I am saying sales pitch:

Then you have the security sales staff that really isn’t all that familiar with what they are trying to sell to you. You ask questions believing that you are getting a qualified answer, when in fact you aren’t.

The follow up scam:

You may be one of the fortunate ones that end up with a good security sales rep. but when it comes installation time you are going to lose out. Either the installation is not done completely, or the installer isn’t all that familiar with the system and it is not going to work to its fullest extent. You are not about to find out about this until some unfortunate security mishap takes place.

The way to avoid the security scams is to…

a) make sure you are dealing with an established and reputable security provider

b)have some understanding of what your security needs are that a knowledgeable rep is answering your questions properly.

c) the company that you are thinking about dealing with has the ability to do a security inspection to determine what your needs are.

For even further hints on how to avoid a security scam check out our article on How to Avoid Locksmith Scams