Knock, knock.
Who’s there? Not the City of Cambridge.
City staff have sent out a warning this week to residents about unsolicited phone calls and people going door-to-door saying they’re city employees sent to take and test water samples.
“They’re often suggesting that there is a problem with the homeowner’s water,” said Mike Parsons, director of environmental services for the City of Cambridge.
In June, Service Cambridge received at least six calls from people claiming the city showed up at their door unannounced.
But what exactly are these fraudsters trying to accomplish and how do they sell it to the homeowner?
“Generally residents are reporting that a person shows up in plain clothes, advises the homeowner that they are there to check their water,” Parsons said.
“They often perform what they refer to as a ‘hardness’ test. The test uses either a chemical or electrical current to change the colour of the naturally occurring minerals in the water to brown or black. This is typically followed by the salesperson advising the homeowner that their water is unsafe to drink and that they need to install one or more expensive filtration units in their home.”
Parsons says the city does have a few water sampling programs and occasionally performs operational sampling in order to validate the safety of drinking water.
The most common reason for testing is for lead in private plumbing. It’s a program that’s entirely voluntary, however.
Staff will also target specific neighbourhoods during the bi-annual lead sampling program and will hand deliver letters to residents offering the service.
On very rare occasions the city will go knocking on doors to collect internal water samples following a water quality investigation or main break.
“In these instances, staff will be in uniform, will have a city marked vehicle and carry city issued identification badges,” Parsons said.
“At no time will staff pressure homeowners to allow us inside for a sample and we will not be selling anything or asking the homeowner for any financial information.”
The city has enacted safety measures when conducting business to assure residents that service is legitimate.
Service agents let callers know that staff won’t call residents to request access their home to test their water. If homeowners haven’t received anything in the mail, it’s not an official City of Cambridge program.
Agents will also ask a number of questions geared specifically to the home and homeowner.
When contacted by CambridgeToday, the Waterloo Regional Police Service said it hadn’t received any complaints or reports of water sampling fraud.
The WRPS routinely posts about scams and arrests on its media page.