Recently a young woman knocked on my door and claimed to be an art history major at a local college. She then very aggressively talked me into making a "donation" toward points she was trying to earn to travel to Europe, and described some cocamamy arrangement in which a local hospital was supposed to receive a magazine donation if I bought them a subscription. I foolishly wrote our a check to "Diamond Sales, Inc." for $39.00, but had a bad feeling about it afterward.
There is an article in today's San Jose Mercury News from an administrator of that very hospital stating that they partake in no such program and to contact the local police if you had been approached by one of these people. Apparently these people travel across the country in vans and then converge on one neighborhood after another.
I first called the number that was on the receipt the woman gave me; a woman answered and said "World Class Circulation" when she picked up the phone. I asked who they were and she claimed to be a "clearing house"; when I asked if she knew where the "Diamond Sales" company is, she said "I believe right now they are in your area", but when I asked what their connection was to that company she claimed not to know anything about them. I asked for her name and her supervisor's name; after long pauses she responded with first names only. I then asked for my $39.00 back, and she said she would check with her supervisor and then call me back. Yeah, right, I'm holding my breath.
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