ADT: Someone is lying to Central Florida consumers

Home security giant offering $25K reward to catch bogus salesmen

ORLANDO, Fla. – Home security giant ADT is offering up to $25,000 to expose an alleged door-to-door sales scheme that may have landed in Central Florida.

[WEB EXTRA:  Report door-to-door solicitors here]

The company claims sales personnel with Vision Securities of Utah are telling local ADT customers they have been hired to reprogram ADT security equipment.

ADT's chief legal officer, David Bleisch, says the door-to-door tactic starts by spotting an ADT sign in a neighborhood.

According to Bleisch, the Vision sales representatives will then present themselves as working with ADT.

"They sign up customers to new long-term contracts and often times the customer doesn't even know they were duped."

Julia Togno, a private investigator in the Orlando area, says she answered her mother-in-law's door and got the pitch from two men wearing black polo shirts with a Vision logo and badges that read Vision Security.

Togno says there was no truck or equipment. Togno says the men showed her a computer tablet with ADT and Vision security logos.

She says the men claimed ADT hired them, "to do inspections and audits and … reprogram your (security) box."

That was Feb. 28.  

Sean Brown, Vision's lead attorney is handling the deceptive practices allegations. Brown says he has no record of Vision sales staff in the area that week.

On May 10, Togno says a man wearing a white shirt claimed to be with Vision Security too. She told him she "knew all about him and had already called ADT."

The man denied any knowledge of the alleged scheme.

Brown is offering a $10,000 reward for any information that leads to catching Vision employees using deceptive practices.

"We do not condone any sales misconduct," Brown said.

Vision has always argued that it never orchestrated the sales tactic, blaming rogue sales personnel for the deception.

The battle between the companies dates back to 2012 when ADT sued Vision and parent company Security Networks of Florida for deceptive sales practices.

Both companies paid ADT $2.2 million in damages.

A former Vision Security sales manager turned over a smartphone recording of a sales session that was conducted in Arizona in April 2013, a few months after the original court settlement.

The person conducting the seminar knew he was being recorded.

ADT has been accused of deceptive sales practices as well. Earlier this year the Federal Trade Commission charged the company with misrepresenting independent product reviews the government found were actually paid endorsements.

If you have information about a deceptive sales practice by someone claiming to be working for ADT, call 888-238-6131 or email, Vision Security's attorney Sean Brown: sbrown@lifevalued.com.


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