| 5 Common Scams Security
Companies Use to Rip You
Off! by Security Operations Manager Justin Brown 1."The Thin Spread": This is when a security company will assign one guard to numerous properties (I’ve personally seen this done with 4 sites at once while using one guard!). What the company will do is have numerous properties that are paying for full time security officer coverage and have their one guard spend maybe 30 minutes at each property rotating back and fourth. In which the entire time the client and residents are getting their safety RIPPED OFF! 2. "The Ghost Hit": This is the one I have seen used the most. This is when the security guard does not even show up and the company will drop off a fake report at the end of the night pretending the guard was there. All the while still charging full price. I once observed a company do this for 6 MONTHS before the client realized that he had no security! Fact is this is fraud and an endangerment of public safety. 3. "Sleeping Beauty": This is when a security company hires people and allows them to sleep the night away. Many security companies have a hard time filling positions so what  |
they will do is allow someone
that has a full time job to
"moonlight" just to show up and
go to sleep. As they say in the
industry "as long as he can fog a
mirror, we’ll hire him". 4. "The Pretend Security Guard" : This is when a company will hire someone knowing that by law they cannot work in the security field (such as convicted felons) put them in a uniform so they can pretend to be security guard and pay them under the table for much less money.  5. "The Bait and Switch": This is usually where the scam starts. The security company will obtain a new contract and put a very squared away security professional there. Then after a week you notice he or she is not there anymore but instead someone that looks and smells like they just crawled out of a dumpster. Security companies understand first impressions last a life time. |
So what they will do is when the company obtains a new contract they put their best out there then when they obtain a new contract they will move him or her to the new contract and move in "the pretend security guard" or "sleeping beauty" and move on to the next scam. Fact is most companies have a couple security professionals they use as bait. Some companies may have 100+ properties and 5 bait officers and when you're not happy they will place the bait officer back out there until you forget what you were unhappy about then move the bait officer out and continue on with their scam. If you feel you or your property may have fallen victim to one of these scams please contact our Operations Manager Justin Brown at 702.782.3711 or by e-mailing Brown@HOASecurityServices.com. |
