Recently we've had a plethora of meter readers coming round to read various meters at our place. We became a bit annoyed when we had two people come round in the same week to read the electric meter so we queried this with our utilities provider and got an interesting answer.
Our particular utilities provider (one of the new breed that bundles utilities with phone, Internet, etc. together) informed us that only one company was authorised by them to do meter readings and no one else was to be coming round. At all. For any reason! Hmmm, interesting...
Since then we've turned away various and sundry meter readers (all normal looking people with uniform, computer/comms equipment, ID, etc. but with no obvious business being there) who have come round in droves.
Observing them told me several things: they seem to only go to specific houses, not the entire street, they present lots of front - insisting they have to do this, they're authorised and it needs to be done (we still tell them no and to go away!), and they drive away completely out of the neighbourhood; they don't go round other streets to other addresses.
Hmmm, is it a sophisticated way of gathering marketing information? Are we being watched by the security services? Do we have sophisticated burglars or car thieves who canvas to see who's in during the day? Is it "D" - something else but none of the above? I don't know but I am always very unhappy as a life policy to make personal or family information freely available to those who legitimately demand it, to say nothing of those who come to the door asking for it in this way, so we're keeping a very close eye on the situation and will be looking for ways to take action in the future.
But, just to say, do be vigilant. Thieves have very sophisticated ways of gaining trust and access nowadays, and posing as meter readers to initially case a house and determine when people are home is a possibility. Don't be afraid to ask official sounding people, who come to the door, intrusive questions about ID (i.e. take it and call their headquarters and ask stern questions, when in doubt) or to turn them away. If they do really need to get access to your premises, you'll get a letter from their office. If not, they'll go elsewhere and you're well rid of them.
