Published on July 13th, 2016 | by Guest

Why You Shouldn’t Buy a Fake Camera

The crime rate is increasing with each passing day thus, it’s better to take precautionary measures rather than falling victim to theft or violence. We all go beyond our abilities to protect what matters to us, be it family/friends, business or assets. The most effective way to do that is deter crime and the most effective solution to keep crime at bay is installation of surveillance equipment. Security cameras equip the user with the video recording of the incidents to identify, nab and bring the culprits to books.

Today, the market is flooded with many different kinds of surveillance products and users have the liberty to choose the best one suitable as per their unique safety needs. One such clan of protection providers are the counterfeit versions. Dummy cameras are fake surveillance cameras that come in various shapes and sizes. These cameras also have a blinking LED in front of them which is a prominent feature. This LED gives the illusion that the area is being actively monitored.

A dummy camera costs a lot less than the real one but at times it is not much beneficial too. There are times when these cameras are not able to prove their worth for the bucks that you have spent on it:

They are easily identifiable. For the knowledgeable criminals, it is a kids’ stuff to identify a dummy camera. So, it means that your safety measures are not fool proof. The arbitrary movement of the lens, blinking red LED light and single wire connection are the factors that clearly portray the fakeness of cameras than you actually think. Thus, a professional criminal could easily tell if the surveillance camera is real or an imitated one.

They cannot prove anything. Dummy CCTV can only act as a visible deterrent. In case the criminal identifies the fake camera and commits crime, you will not have any real time record of the incident. So, you won’t able to prove anything in case of such events. This leaves you highly vulnerable to crime and theft.

They create a false sense of security. While the security installer is positioning all your cameras, they typically inform the neighborhood (as a protocol) that the cameras are not real so that they don’t rely on them completely for their protection. However, this piece of information can spread and easily be slipped into the ears of would-be burglars who obviously are looking out for such opportunities.

You might have to face legal issues. You may end up into some legal implications as well if you’re using imitated products. Read the following story to comprehend better:

An employee parks his car in the parking lot of his company and intentionally leaves behind his valuables in the car. The car was in the full view of the so-called dummy camera. He returns back to find that his car and valuables have been stolen. Thereafter, he asks his employer to show him the video footage. But as expected, his employer had no video proof of the incident as the video cam was the fake one. As a result, the employer had to battle a lawsuit.

They may not fit in. One might choose to mix the real systems with the counterfeit ones to provide as many visible deterrents as possible. This idea seems to be clever one, right? But in reality a hoaxed version put next to a real one would make it look “real fake” one. So, just drop your plans to create a hybrid video system.

These cameras can’t push alerts at the time of danger. Imagine someone breaks into your home or office, and you are NOT being aware of this fact. They are taking away all your hard earned valuables, and you still are NOT aware! Now, this is the major drawback of dummy CCTV.

Original surveillance systems send instantaneous alerts via push notifications and/or email alerts whenever there is any ambiguous activity or a break-in. Some security camera systems can also be configured to send motion triggered captures to the user. When you get such alerts, you can immediately call 911 for help and reduce your loss as much as possible and could possibly catch the burglar too.

You are not wrong in thinking that fake security cameras can be beneficial in discouraging crime rate. But, it is equally important to know the implications that you might face if you go for a dummy camera. Although the choice is certainly yours but it is advisable to stretch that you stretch your budget a bit to safeguard your family and business.

Author Bio:

Acknowledged for his security acumen, Ted Yu is a gadget wizard, an active blogger, and an eminent speaker. Having 10 years of experience to his credit, Ted has always been a pertinent contributor towards the security industry with his area of expertise into the surveillance systems domain. He is closely associated with Revo America, a well renowned security products manufacturer and retailer.

Tags: buy, camera, fake, why