Home Security
Scam-In

Scam-In: clever lies to get past your home security. The countless flimflam scams of male or female predators all have the same goal: getting into your home to rob or attack you. Your name on your mailbox and any clues from window peeping are a big help to them.

The home invasion began when a woman came to the door asking to use the phone, said police. When a resident ignored home security and let the woman in, two men with guns followed her. Police said the neighborhood is normally quiet.
Excerpted from The Santa Cruz Sentinel – 25 November 2004

Charlie Henry said some of the same intruders who invaded his home had stopped by a week ago to question him about where another person lived. Yesterday a woman came to the door alone asking for water. As soon as he let her in, the three men stormed into his house.
Excerpted from The Shreveport Times (LA) – 03 March 2006

The nightmare began while 90-year-old Shannon Dale was in his yard using his snowblower to clear a walk. A man who arrived in a pickup truck approached him, identified himself as a gas company employee and asked Dale about the location of various lines. ... With Dale distracted by the questions, three other men that he initially did not see entered the house. The impostor eventually followed Shannon Dale to the door, then moved inside. There, the four robbers tied him up and gagged him. Then they pounded him, breaking his nose, knocking out his teeth, cracking a rib and opening a wound on his cheek. Mrs. Dale already had been overpowered and bound with tape. ... Dale's plight worsened in the minutes that followed. His wife, Freda, 89, her arms and legs bound with tape by the intruders, died of a heart attack. The coroner said it was induced by terror. She died in a hallway as her husband lay nearby, bound, gagged and helpless to do anything for her. ... The crime happened on a country road where just about everybody felt safe about home security. No longer is that the case.
Excerpted from The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – 31 January 2003

Simple home security such as an alarm system with a panic-button (see below) and a keyless touch-pad deadbolt lock – both with remote-control pocket fobs – might have saved the Dales. Their house would've been locked while he was outside, and as soon as he sensed trouble he could've sounded the alarm. Since the other invaders wouldn’t have already gotten indoors – and with a siren shrieking – the criminals likely would've simply fled at that point. At the least, Mrs. Dale wouldn’t have been exposed to them.

As Jeremy Rausch was packing something in his auto, the assailant started a conversation with him allowing a female companion of the suspect to get into the home. Jeremy's wife was in the home. ... Jeremy's wife went to tell her husband, 'there's someone in the house.'" But before Jeremy could get the woman out of the house the man Jeremy was speaking with went into the home and shot Jeremy in the head. ... In the last six weeks there have been 13 home invasion crimes, and all of them involve entering the home while the owner is inside. "All of these doors have been unlocked or have been left open," said the police.
Excerpted from KATU-TV Portland OR – 27 June 2003

Two teenage boys, Robert Tulloch and James Parker, went to five homes planning to kill and rob people. After cutting the phone lines at the first home, one teen hid nearby as the other knocked at the door and claimed his car had broken down. But the homeowner had come to the door with a gun and frightened them away. ... At the second home, they posed as students doing an environmental study but the man who answered the door said he was too busy to participate. They then surveyed a third home, but lost their nerve on the way up the driveway. They targeted a fourth home but the residents weren't home. ... Their fifth target was the secluded home of Half and Suzanne Zantop, two professors well known for generously helping students. In the middle of a sleepy New England day a few miles from the Dartmouth campus, they ignored home security and let the boys in and were stabbed to death in a vicious frenzy.
Excerpted from The Boston Globe – 25 March, 05 April 2002

On the Oprah TV show, to demonstrate how easily people fall for home security scams, a hidden camera recorded a male staff-member wearing a business suit with a phony police ID tag typed on an ordinary typewriter with ordinary paper and knocking on the doors of 100 homes pretending to be a police detective. Every single one invited him in.

Mark Schwab was sentenced to death for the murder of an 11-year-old boy. He'd seen the boy's picture in the newspaper shortly after Schwab was released from prison on a sexual assault sentence. He gained the confidence of the family by claiming he was with the newspaper and was writing an article about the boy.
Excerpted from The New York Times – 15 November 2007

In Pennsylvania, two predators knocked on the door of a home claiming to be looking for a lost dog. When the homeowner, duped into ignoring home security, opened his door to get a better look at the photo they held, they pushed-in and robbed him.

Roger Broadway, who had just been released from prison when he was hired as a salesman, was selling magazines door-to-door when he raped, beat, smothered and stabbed Eskalene DeBorde, 66, in her home. ... The independent contractor (to provide a sales force) identified by District Attorney Bob Pryor "goes around in a van, picking up salespeople wherever they can." Broadway was picked up in front of a halfway house where he was living just days after being released from prison. "The books are full of door-to-door salesmen who breach home security to commit crimes," he said.
Excerpted from The Knoxville News Sentinel – 13 June 2003

To gain entry into the Florida home, two of the men dressed up like FBI agents, carrying fake identifications and firearms. When the victims allowed the false FBI agents into their home, they were handcuffed and tape was placed over their mouths - while torturing the man with a stun gun and threatening to cut off his wife’s fingers and ears until money was paid to the defendants. The woman was told that her feet would be broken with a hammer if she did not tell the defendants where money was hidden in the home.
Excerpted from Law News Network (NZ) – 04 February 2006

PC Sankey said, "Don't be panicked. Over time you get to know the different ways that bogus callers work and they will try to panic victims, saying "there's been a explosion down the road", or "there's a water leak and we've got to test the water… Because the "distraction burglary" happens so quickly the person doesn't have the time to respond to the violent robberies at the homes.
Excerpted from The Norwich Evening News (UK) – 18 March 2004

"For years, we've had problems with the travelers (transient criminals), but they historically conduct roofing, driveway and home improvement scams," Cpl. William Link said. "They first quote a low price, then when the work is done, the price is much higher and the work's not done right." ... Home invasions are more recent."Sometimes, a female comes to the door to be the distraction," Link said. "She may say she's buying the house next door and wants to leave a message, or she has car trouble. Then she'll ask for a drink of water. When the homeowner goes to the kitchen, she comes along. Then others in the group go through the house."
Excerpted from The Daily American (Somerset County PA) – 18 March 2004

"They knocked on my door and called out my name," he said. "I wasn't thinking nothing about home security. I just unlocked the door. And that's when they stuck a shotgun in my face."
Excerpted from WAVE3-TV Louisville – 09 December 2004

"My God, you'd think after eight of them they'd stop opening the door for him." – a police detective pursuing the Boston Strangler who killed at least 11 women in the early 1960's.

Detectives are hunting a gang using a tearful boy and the tale of a lost hamster to breach the home security of pensioners. The cruel con involves the youngster knocking on victims' doors then tearfully claiming his pet has wandered into their garden. While the householder helps the boy search for the phantom pet, the boy's adult accomplice enters the property and rifles the house.
Excerpted from The Teesside Evening Gazette (UK) – 20 August 2004

Children may scam their way past your home security to attack you, such as the three preteen sisters in Chicago who robbed and killed an elderly neighbor. In the 1990’s alone, preteen children murdered more than 500 people in home invasions.

ALWAYS use your peephole and intercom and NEVER open the door – not even an inch – for any stranger. Don’t give them the opportunity to push-in past your home security. Don't open the door to strangers asking for help with a stalled car, lost dog, etc. For home security, tell them through an intercom you’ll help by calling 911. Then do so. See www.smarthome.com for intercoms.

Phony uniforms are easy to get (even police uniforms and ID). A predator might violate your home security by posing as a bible student, building inspector, census-taker, charity fund-raiser, deliveryman, florist, minister, repairman, salesman, or utility worker, and may have a female or child as an accomplice. Bad weather may cause you to pity them.

Insist on photo I.D. (linked to his employer) held up to your window. Look for his company vehicle (not with a magnetic sign). Then call his company to check (get the number from the phone directory, not from him).

If a woman pounds on your door claiming she’s being chased, tell her you’ll phone 911. Think about it. If it's not a scam and a violent predator is indeed chasing her, he might burst in behind her when you open your door! Are you ready for that? Instead, by not letting her in, pushing your Alarm System, and phoning 911, you and your family will be safe. And the alarm may well scare away her “attacker.” Be very careful about trying to be a hero. See more about this gnarly ethical issue in Are You Really Ready To Be A Hero? in Spotting Danger.

See Alarm Systems

Go to
• Home Security - Overview
• Break-In: Most homes are easy to invade. Make yours burglarproof.
• Walk-In: Half of all home invasions are through unlocked doors and windows! It's easy to always keep them locked at all times with the guidance in the Security Products Buying Guide: Home - Intro (below).
• Push-In: Never blindly open the door when someone knocks. If you are pushed-in, do not stay inside with him (even if other family members are home) – flee to the outside for help. See Hostage Taking. Better to use an intercom from www.smarthome.com.
• Mug-In: If you’re ambushed outside your home and ordered to go inside, do not go! As with a push-in, you’re better off outside. See Kidnapping.
• Scam-In: Do not open the door, not even an inch, to any stranger - no matter what they say - scam-artists are master manipulators (see Push-In above). (YOU’RE NOW ON THIS PAGE)
• Cracks in Security: subtle variations of Break-In, Walk-In, Push-In, Mug-In, and Scam-In home intrusions.
• College - Apartment & Dormitory Security: staying safe despite careless roommates.
• Good Neighbors: the final layer of home protection.
• Security Product Buying Guide: Home - Intro
• Door Reinforcement
• Window Reinforcement
• Garage & Yard Reinforcement
• Simple Home Electronics
• Alarm Systems
• Flaws in Electronic Security
• Apartment & Dormitory Security
• Safe Room
• Recap: for a quick summary of this entire section.

Safeguard your home security even if you live in Sleepy Valley - predators like to prowl where the prey least expect them.

Prevent the vast majority of home intrusions - whether by burglar or invader by making sure all your family members use these home security strategies. Of course, predators will always find prey – but the most cautious targets will be spared.

Return to
Home Security - Overview
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