Yes, I also fell for this scam of donating childrens books/magazine subscriptions to fund a local "college student" earning his way for an internship in Europe.
The guy was clean cut and very personable. His family had alledgedly recently moved to our neighborhood and mother could be seen every day running her black lab. Maybe I had seen her? Tons of people in our neighborhood walk/run their dogs—I don't pay that much attention to them. The young man supposedly attended the Univ of GA and was earning money to fund an internship in Europe through the university with the BBC (like many other reports filed)
One of my own children wanted to do a study abroad program with the university he attended, so the story sounded plausible. The young man even said his professor would be following up by phone on each of his sales and gave me the professor's name!
I agreed to fund some childrens books that were to be donated to a children's hospital in Atlanta. Yes, the hospital he named is a real one in Atl. I wrote a check.
After he had left, I went to the web site on the receipt he gave me, www.prestigesalesusa.com, and was suspicious of that site. So I googled the company name and found all the complaints with the the stories being given the homeowners nearly identical, only the university he attended was different! One person in Texas gave a description of the young man with "some acne and crooked front teeth", thin and not very tall, which matched the guy I had talked with! If it is the same person, he sure gets around. Anyhow, I stopped payment on my check that same night. I would rather pay the bank $30 than let this guy get away with his lies! This Prestige Sales clearing house may or may not be legitimate, but I am sure the "salesman" I spoke with tells the same story to everyone, just changing the name of the college he attends depending on the area he is working.
If this happens to you, just say you are not interested and goodbye. It is very sad that you can trust no one these days, and this is sad for the honest college students who truly do need to work just to pay for their education!
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