The Cornwall Community Police Service is warning of a potential scam in the city that has people going door-to-door claiming to be Bell Canada sales/service, representatives.
“We’ve had several calls about it,” said Const. Dan Cloutier, who handles media relations for the service.
The CCPS first alerted the public about the scam on its Facebook page recently, the posting noting the individuals involved had taken a very aggressive approach to try and obtain personal information from people, such as credit card numbers and names.
On Monday, Cloutier said, “one of our officers confirmed with Bell that they would not be asking for personal information.”
Cloutier added that it’s important to be very careful with personal information.
“The CCPS asks that people not give that out, unless it’s a known and reliable source,” he said. “You have to be very careful. . . once you give your personal information out, a lot of damage can be done, and it can be hard to (rectify the situation).”
If someone believes there’s possibly been an attempt at a scam, should they call or alert the police?
Cloutier said yes.
“We need to know,” he said. “We need to know so we can get the word out and possibly prevent or scams, essentially protecting the public.”
But the first rule of thumb is to be cautious when anyone comes to the door, looking to sell a product or service.
“Put the odds in your favour,” Cloutier said. “Err on the side of caution.”
The Cornwall and Area Chamber of Commerce said it hadn’t yet been made aware of the potential scam on Monday, but that if it did receive complaints it would be issuing a media bulletin.
Read the original story over at the Standard Freeholder.
