I must have 'SUCKER' written across my forehead because this isn't the first time I've fallen short of a scam like this!
I was walking through a mall in Houston, Texas when a young man came up to me and said he was at college. He said his name was Matt Rowley (he smelt like cigarettes). He said that for his course, they had an assignment to do public speaking and that he had a set quota of people he had to practise public speaking with.
He proceded to ask a bunch of (not too intrusive questions) set up as a kind of survey. He then said, look I'm going to cut to the chase, I am selling something. I'm part of a competition whereby, we sell magazines which get sent to the military, schools or hospitals. I'm entered to win money for my college degree and also get a chance to win a holiday.
I asked him, "how do I know this is legitimate? I've been scammed like this before". He showed me all sorts of ids, and formal documentation and said his company encourages the consumers to call up the toll free number and check on the status of the magazines.
He said it was a dollar per issue, and they send out 48. All the while little alarm bells are ringing distantly in the back of my head, but i ignore them because i can't help but be nice to people.
When I proceded to pull out my check book, he asked if there was anyway I could pay some in cash because it takes a while for the check to clear. I should have backed out at this point, but foolish me did what he asked and gave him $5 cash.
The cost ended up at $63 (process and handling at $15).
I researched the company online. There isn't much information on it. One website said there were 14 employees and their average yearly income is 750,000. There is no physical address for the company just a P. O box. All of this has SCAM written all over it.
Even if it wasn't a scam (which it was), I should mean up a bit and say "NO!" straight away because i hate that people approach you for money like that. Always say no to these people!!! What legitimate company would do sales this way anyway?
Foolish, foolish, foolish me.
0 comments