UK Police Warn of Fake Doorstep Broadband ISP Sales Representatives

The Royal Wootton Bassett & Cricklade Police force in Wiltshire (England) has warned people to be on the lookout for bogus door-to-door sales representatives that attempt to sell broadband packages without giving any form of ID or saying which ISP you’d be connected to.

As a general rule of thumb it’s best to avoid any door-to-door sales people, especially if they try to sell you broadband and or phone services. Sadly the ISP market has a worrying history of abusing this practice, which in the past has resulted in a string of mis-selling and slamming (i.e. people being swapped to a new ISP without consent) related complaints to Ofcom. The situation is better today but consumers should always remain vigilant.

O’Halloran, Police Community Support Officer, said:

Afternoon all. A recent report from a person in Cricklade suggests that there could be bogus sales representatives in the area trying to sell broadband packages. The door-to-door sales person did not provide any ID or explain about the company who would be supplying the broadband which left the potential customer quite suspicious.

Please can I ask that you remain vigilant when dealing with door-to-door sales reps and always ask the sales person for ID and information about the company they’re representing. If you do feel that the person is not legitimately trading, either contact us on – Tel: 101 or report it to the company which they tell you they represent in order to see if trading should be in your area.

Many thanks.

The communications regulator, Ofcom, last year told ISPreview.co.uk that it hoped to pick a new method of broadband and phone migration by the end of 2012 (here) but unsurprisingly this has slipped into 2013 (delays are nothing new for this project).

The new system, which is likely to put the power for handling migrations into the hands of your new (gaining) ISP, is expected to include some form of Third Party Verification that should in theory work to improve protection for consumers against mis-selling. Of course that won’t stop fake door-to-door sales reps taking your cash but it’s best to just avoid them.