The Old Low 10-Year-Old Battery Trick

February 18, 2009 SSI Staff

Following is an email I recently received in which a homeowner worries he is the victim of a somewhat inventive criminal scheme related to burglar alarms. Based on the info provided, it certainly seems like a scam to me.

Here is the E-email:

“Hello, I’ve been calling companies and searching the net for half an hour now with no results, so maybe you can start to help me out. You have an article on C&K Systems so maybe you know a bit about them, or just home security in general.

I have a C&K systems alarm in my home, but it hasn’t been active in close to 10 years, its just been on the wall. I got a call this morning from a company, dont know which (I was half asleep) calling to warn me about a low battery in my alarm system. Like a blabber mouth I said it wasn’t active anymore.

Then it hit me that this could be fraud to for someone to see if i had an alarm installed in my home, so Im just asking you, in the home security industry, would someone call me to tell me I have a low battery even thought I haven’t been using/paying for the service in over 10 years?

Thanks for your time.”

What do you think and have you ever heard of this particular set of circumstances before? What are some other criminal scams related to security systems have you heard of? By sharing here we can better help people keep out of harm’s way.

As always, thanks for reading,

Scott Goldfine

Editor-in-Chief

SECURITY SALES & INTEGRATION

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