Warning to Bay Area residents - I was the victim of a door-to-door "fund raising" magazine subscription scam. A young woman came to my door claiming to be raising money so that her soft ball team could go to a tournament/play off in Hawaii. She said several times that she was my neighbor and showed me a check from a "neighbor" who had also donated to her cause. She stated that this year "they" were doing something new with magazine subscription donations stating that a portion of the money would buy magazines for soldiers at Fort Hood and a portion would go to fund her teammates air plane tickets (she already had a ticket because her family could pay her way). She was with a young man (who was her friend visiting from Kansas - and by the way had I ever been to Kansas?) She said it was her birthday, she was turning 18 (looked about 25) and she had volunteered to collect funds for the rest of her team because she was so fortunate that her family could pay for her trip. This young woman went into a lot of detail about her team, the trip they would be taking to Hawaii and her family. She also said that if I donated the money, she would come back to wash my car or do something nice for me because this is how her father raised her. She also said that her father was in the military. I wanted to do something nice for our community and something nice for our troops so I donated the $51.00. She gave me a receipt and said that if I went to the website on the receipt (which turned out to be a phony e-mail address), I could see how her team was doing. The woman, who called herself Amanda Gumns, said that her mother (whom I reminder her of) would be coming by to give me a donation receipt for my taxes. This has never happened, there is no website, Amanda Gumns (at [email protected]) has never answered my e-mail and there is no softball team. If any one has had similar experiences in the San Francisco Bay Area, please file a report with your local police (which is what I am doing)
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