About a month ago, someone rang at our apartment door saying they were selling magazines. One person was a black male, early to mid-20's named Jay, and his companion was a black female of similar age. They said they were selling magazines to win a trip, and they were in 2nd. Place in the local contest. They said if we subscribed to magazines separately, they would get more "points." So we signed up for 3 different types of magazines and wrote 2 checks - one for $140 and one for I believe $114.
They charmed their way into our pocketbook, saying they were engaged (we were newly married) and they were in college (I had just graduated). But from their body language, it was clear they were just acquaintances (plus the female had no ring and didn't act affectionate towards the male). As they spoke to us, I became suspicious not only because of their behavior, but because they said we could write them off as a charity on next year's taxes, but nothing on their documents said they were part of a 501 (c) (3) organization. After they left, taking our checks and leaving us some receipts, I began to Google the company. Sure enough, I came up on many reports that ECR, Inc., was a scam.
Luckily, I called my bank and put a stop payment on the checks, and priority mailed the receipts to their Naples, FL address with my husband's signature on the back stating we were canceling the order. I documented everything in case we needed to take someone to court. We received the checks in the mail back, and sure enough, whoever is running the scam had tried to cash them with Bank of America, but because of the stop payment they couldn't get our money.
Please, PLEASE be cautious of these salespeople! Don't buy their stories or let them charm you out of your money! We don't answer the door anymore to anyone who looks like they are selling something because of this scam.
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