Victim Location 60015
Total money lost $25
Type of a scam Phishing
A young black man came to my door dressed in a white shirt and tie adn asked me if I believe in 2nd chances.
I told him yes and he went on to give me a sob story on how he was trying to earn a 2nd chance selling magazine subscriptions and that he would earn points and a commission. The list of magazines was out dated and extremely overpriced. $336 plus $20 P.H. for a toal of $356 for 6 magazines for 1 year subscription. I felt bad for the young man and wrote him a check for $356 in my mind as a donation to a charity.
After further reasearch and trying to reach their bogus web site, I realized that this was a complete scam! Fortunately I was able to stop payment on my check! I did unfortunately give the young man my phone number, personal email and home address but thankfully no credit card # or SS#.
Victim Location 98107
Type of a scam Charity
There were several red flags about my interaction with a door-to-door magazine salesman that represented *** *** *** *** that knocked on my door at around 8pm on a Thurs. night.
1. Unprofessional presentation of materials: Immediately I knew the person at my door was not working for a legitimate charity. No fliers, no binder of images, no logos of the charity, no business cards–nothing symbolizing an official business, just a half-assed website and phone number. Charity information was presented in a folded up, laminated paper and appeared very old, stained, and crumbled
2. Unnecessarily complicated presentation of cost: Cost of a subscription was way too complex. The salesman needed to multiply number of mags by number of months by number points. You were paying for "experience points (?)" and no cost was clearly laid out. Obviously designed to be overly confusing.
3. Check was the only method of payment: no cash, no online payment, no credit card. It had to be check because of a "commission" for the salesman–which made no sense. A sale is a sale and a reputable company would compensate their employees for their work.
4. Illegitimate online presence: about 6-7 sources attributes *** *** *** *** as an illegitimate business. Read many complaints that refunds were difficult to get, magazines were never received, and contact with the company was difficult. The website is far from polished, no ability to pay online, no images of the charity involvement, no LinkedIn profile, they are not found in charity databases, and I could NOT find information about the charity the salesman described on the website. Very questionable.
5. Lengthy, difficult refund process: Read the ScamPulse.com complaints and responses from the company. In most cases refunds were difficult to get, with a lengthy wait time, and spotty contact. It shouldn’t take a comment on the ScamPulse.com to convince a legitimate company to expedite refunds.
Please connect the dots if this occurs to you and do not give them your money.