On April 14, a cute, slender red-haired teenage girl calling herself Victoria appeared at my condo doorstep. She claimed she was from Omaha, Nebraska, and that she was selling magazine subscriptions, and that she was part of a group of similar young kids who were involved in a multi-city solicitation effort to enhance their business acumen and raise funds for a group trip.
It sounded a tad bogus, but I listened. She was charming, and informed me that my donation would get me a subscription to a magazine of my choice, in addition to helping her out. A subscription to Golf magazine, she told me, would gain her 200 points toward the trip (to where, I can't remember).
Reluctantly, I gave "Victoria" a $20 check, figuring that Golf magazine would be an okay thing to have.
Every few months I looked for that magazine, but I haven't received a single copy yet, and now it's been 6 months. It smelled fishy from the get-go, but thinking I was basically getting a magazine subscription certainly made it easier to go along with things.
All I can say now is that these thieves certainly have some young and innocent-appearing young ladies working for them. It was like dealing with Tatum O'Neal in the movie "Paper Moon."
The receipt the girl gave me has an address only for the so-called Palmetto Marketing, Inc. There are no phone numbers and no Internet addys. The fine print implies that the solicitors (i.E., "Victoria" and her people) are independent of Palmetto, that they contracted with the company in order to run their fundraising efforts.
Six months without any magazine delivered to my house, and I can only conclude that I was ripped-off by a sweet little red-haired teen girl. Wherever you are, creep, you owe me $20.
I'm only glad I didn't get hit worse, I guess. But if you do the math, $20 times who knows how many people adds up to a lot of cash.
How do we go after these scumbags?
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