Today a young man came by my apartment claiming to be selling magazine subscriptions on behalf of a company out of Aubrey Texas called CRS Inc. My first response to him was that the apartment complex did not allow solicitors. He blatantly lied to me and told me he had already gotten approval from the apartment management and sold a sub to the courtesy officer.
His pitch was well versed and he was a likeable person. He told me he did this during the winter time to raise money for a business he was starting back home. He told me he was from Philadelphia. His ulitmate goal was to win an internal contest within the company to get a trip to St. Thomas and a grant for his business. I told him that I didn't really buy into his pitch and he rebutted that the business was legit and accredited with the BBB.
He was pushing for cash claiming it got him more points for the contest. I decided to buy a subscription because he seemed sincere and I knew that if I wrote a check I could always cancel it before the cashed it. He gave me a reciept and left. The receipt had no phone number or web site, which alerted me immediately that I had just been scammed.
I looked up the business at the BBB's website and found they had been graded F. They constantly fail to respond to complaints and refuse to comment on allegations of fraud.
After finding this information out, I canceled the check and called the courtesy officer in my complex. He indeed had NOT been in contact with this gentleman and said he would alert the police to this scam.
The guy definitely knew he was ripping people off. He lied numerous times to make the sale. I will be going to the Better Business Bureau's website after this to file a formal complaint against the so called "company."
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