How Can Comcast Employees/Workers Know If You Are Stealing Cable?

Question

My cousin had free cable for 8 months. and was caught yesterday, all the comcast guys did was disabled the cable. but how did they know it was connected in the first place? also. what do they do to the cable wire for it to not work? the cable was still connected to the tv perfectly and all but the cable wasnt working so and im thinking they did something to the cable wire to disable it, what did they do to it?

Answer 1

Four ways that I can think of.



1) they did an audit of your area and found it. This is a common practice for obvious reasons.



2) your connection was feeding ingress or noise back into the line. Most commonly if feeds directly onto the frequencies that they use for the cable internet, causing the bandwidth to slow. Too many customers complain that their internet is getting slow so they track it down.



3) some one told on you.



4) they did an install or upgrade on a neighbor and just saw you sitting there with a red tag, hooked up and everything. Tsk Tsk.



Now that you have been caught, you cant say that it was like that when you moved in. Its a felony to steal a utility, and cable is classified as a utility. You've been slapped on the wrist, now dont let your cousin do it again, because they do have lawyers that do nothing other than take people that steal cable to court.

Answer 2

Stealing Cable

Answer 3

This Site Might Help You.



RE:

How Can Comcast Employees/Workers Know If You Are Stealing Cable?

My cousin had free cable for 8 months. and was caught yesterday, all the comcast guys did was disabled the cable. but how did they know it was connected in the first place? also. what do they do to the cable wire for it to not work? the cable was still connected to the tv perfectly and all but the...

Answer 4

Ok I'm not a cable guy but I am a cable girl; stealing cable is a crime and I know it seems minor but the fines and jail time are not. There are so many services run through those lines today that the levels must be perfect or it can cause issues all over the neighborhood. It will cause phones to become static or shut off; leaving people without access for emergencies. Internet services can be extremely slow or stop all together, not to mention people's digital services tiling and/or freezing. Please tell your cousin not to do this anymore, I would hate to see him end up in serious trouble, he was let go this time but the next time he may not be so lucky. If you break down the cost of cable by 30 days, it is really not a huge cost for the entertainment it provides. Most people pay more for coffee or cigarettes in a days time than what cable actually costs.

Answer 5

They turned off the signal at YOUR NODE....so even though the cable is still connected, your signal isn't even coming down the main line to your termination box.



They have equipment that actually measures a thing called "IMPEDANCE" .....That's actually signal resistance, and signal current that's being measured by them.

They can tell if a certain node has a TV connected, and all they have to do is PING the connection to verify it's a TV set connected and not a bug crawling inside the termination box.



PING! There's a couple connections on the node that are active....PING! It's located at 224 West Cherry Street and 352 Hobart Avenue...PING! Those are not active customers....PING! Here's your list of termination boxes to check today. If they give you any problems, call us and we'll call the sheriff....PING! You'll be lucky if the sheriff doesn't visit you.



PING! I've been inside one of their detection vans....and MAN!! it's the best equipment I've ever seen! It's nice when they call you for storm-related servicing, problems with noisy TV sets, and TVs that don't function with their cable. On the other hand, we call them when the TV functions correctly and we suspect a problem with data transmission. I have never met a cable guy that I didn't like.

Answer 6

The cables comes in from the street, and enters a box on the side of your house before heading inside your house. Only the cable company can get inside the box, where they can install a filter to prevent you from getting channels you aren't subscribed to (e.g. HBO) or disconnect it altogether.



Note that tampering with this cable box carries the same penalties as tampering with any other utility box or meter.

Answer 7

We do audits from time to time & we check when we are connecting a new line of service...We usaully put a terminator on the line.....or if we keep finding the problem persists We cut the cable & report it ......

Answer 8

if you live in a poor places they sometimes do check up or may someone you know can also report you. They don't need to go into someone home/apt to disconnect something they can do it from the outside. One more advice, stop stealing cable it is not legal and next time you can get in big trouble ( you can even go to jail for it)

Answer 9

like her in Canada com cast can tell if you are stealing cable they have their own box and they do know what you are watching all the time they can shut u down from the office this is very true its like an invasion of privacy

Answer 10

Could you elaborate a bit more?