Accessibility - Case study

Bogus callers

To protect our customers from bogus callers, people who claim to work for Northumbrian Water or ‘the water board’ but who are only interested in stealing from customers' properties, we have an on-going campaign in place to raise awareness about these callous conmen. 

As part of this campaign, which has celebrity endorsement as it was launched by Jack Charlton, we have produced an information and advice leaflet in conjunction with the three police forces in the region.  We work with several other organisations, including Age Concern and the health authority, who also help to distribute our leaflets and raise awareness. 

Our advice includes a checklist which customers can use when someone calls at their home requesting access to their property.  Its key points are to look for our green and blue company logos on vehicles and clothing and to closely examine the identity card.  If the customer doubts a caller’s identity our employees are always happy to wait while customers carry out relevant checks.  They are advised to ring our Customer Centre to check that the person on their doorstep in genuine.

Customers have the opportunity to register a password with us - Northumbrian Water employees who need access into a customer's home will know the password.  Customers can register a password by calling us, on-line or by post.

We try to increase awareness of bogus callers at times when our customers may be particularly vulnerable such as when we are carrying out improvement work in a particular area or at Christmas.  All information leaflets and letters that are sent to customers, advising them about improvement work, include the message that it is unlikely that our employees and/or contractors will require access to properties and if the customer is in any doubt they should contact either our customer centre or the police.  Information is also available with annual bills, in Source our customer magazine, which is issued annually to every property in our supply area, and on our website.

When the opportunity arises, employees from Northumbrian Water give talks to the elderly about bogus callers and have also spoken at events and conferences.  We continuously work with regional media to raise awareness about this serious issue - both proactively and reactively.

We distribute leaflets which contain an information sticker designed to be placed near the front door, it lists the telephone numbers of companies who are likely to call at people’s homes and the customer can then check with them whether the visitor is genuine.