Unscrupulous contractors tied to certain digital TV providers have attempted to convince groups of customers that analog TV will stop broadcasting as of the New Year in order to sell them expensive equipment.

For example, a group of sales people from EuroActive, a contractor of Cyfra Plus, told residents of the gmina Hrubieszów, mostly elderly people, to purchase decoders worth a few hundred złoty and to sign subscription contracts. The sales pitch was always similar: “If you turn on your TV on January 1, you will see nothing. Unless you buy our decoder.” Ten employees of the company, including two managers, have already been arrested by police and charged with deception.

Swindlers from the Rzeszów region, meanwhile, would present themselves as official representatives of Polish Television (TVP) in order to make their story more believable. They would  inform clients that subscription prices for public TV were increasing as of 2011. The problem become so profound that TVP has taken steps to warn its audience in Rzeszów.

Poland A.M.