SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

Bothell woman cornered by cable company scam

Jul 12, 2017, 2:33 PM | Updated: 2:56 pm

cable company scam...

Two men knocked on a Bothell woman's door claiming to be from a cable company. It turned out to be a scam and she was cornered. (U.S. Army, Flickr)

(U.S. Army, Flickr)

Erica was home alone at her Bothell apartment one evening when a startling knock on the door echoed through her home.

“I stood back from the door and said, ‘Who is it?'” she told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson. “I couldn’t understand what they were saying. They knocked again, super loud. I thought somebody might have been playing a prank, so I looked through the little peephole to see who it was.”

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There were two men at the door, wearing uniforms of a local cable company. They had a clipboard containing paperwork with the same cable company’s logo on it.

“They were wearing uniforms and said they were with my apartment building, that they had permission to come in because they were working on the fiber optics of the building,” she said. ” …I reluctantly let them in and things got a little crazy from there.”

“Crazy” is one way to put it. Scary is another. The encounter led to a cornered woman with men requesting her cell phone, social security number, ID, and even alcohol.

“I was alone with two strangers asking me for things that I knew were inappropriate,” Erica said.

Needless to say, they weren’t from the cable company.

Listen to Erica’s story here.

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Bothell woman cornered by cable company scam