Door-to-Door Poster Scams – Business Owners Beware

It has come to our attention that some labor law poster companies engage in fraudulent poster selling tactics. Sometimes a company recruits a traveling door-to-door salesmen to sell state and federal labor law posters for businesses. Their tactics often involve high pressure sales to business owners, and insist their “authorized” workplace posters must be purchased in order to become compliant with the law. When times are tough people come up with creative ways to make a quick dollar and this is one way of doing it. Unfortunately, this is a scam.

Recently, in Arizona it was reported that there is a person impersonating an OSHA compliance officer. This impersonator walks into the business and claims to be an OSHA compliance officer and needs to conduct an inspection for safety violations. After the inspection the impersonator tells the business owner that they found several safety violations on the premises and if the business could give him a check or cash for a given number specific amount of money he would not issue any citation to the business.

A similar occurrence was recently reported in Harris County where a judge granted an injunction against a Houston woman engaged in an employment poster scam, the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) recently announced. The woman illegally posed as a TWC compliance enforcement contractor and tried to charge businesses for employment posters, TWC charged. The woman is charged with violations of the Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act. If convicted, she faces civil penalties of up to $20,000 per violation.

OSHA and other government agencies do not work this way. As a business owner or manager you have legal rights when a compliance officer walks in the door. The compliance officer will show you government photo identification (not a driver’s license) from your specific State or the U.S. Department of Labor Department of Occupational Safety and Health. They will also give you a business card with the phone number and address of the local OSHA office. The compliance officer will explain the reason for the visit and ask to speak to the person in charge or business owner. As a business owner or manager you have the legal right to call the local OSHA office to confirm the identity of the person. If they do not have the proper identification or don’t want you to call the local OSHA office, the person may be an imposter.

CPC never sends a door-to-door salesperson to any place of business. CPC does not sell compliance products on Craigslist. You can order CPC All-On-One posters for your state online, call CPC and place your order with one of our knowledgeable Compliance Advisors, or order through one of our authorized distributors. You can also sign up for automatic email alerts. We appreciate your business.