Scam Alert!
A young man shows up at my door last night around dinner time, with this great story about how he plays baseball for Penn State and he's trying to raise money to pay for a trip for a tournament being held in Hawaii. The pitch is that he is selling childrens books fo $40. Half of the money goes towards his trip, and half goes to the purchase of the books, which then get donated to Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia. Being a former athlete myself, and remembering the days of pounding the pavement trying to raise money for trips, jackets, and equipment I immediatley beleived his cause was legit. Not to mention that he was donating books to the sick kids at Childrens Hospital, How could anyone say no.
Anyway, I write a check for $40, and hands me a receipt. A couple of hours later I was reading the receipt, and started to smell a fish. I've donated to charaties before, and usually the receipt says thanks for the donation, and lists the name of the organization. This receipt had a bunch of statements that basically said that they were not afilliated with any charities, among other things that looked like they were written to protect themselves from a lawsuit.
When I checked out the company on the internet, I realized that this outfit had been running under several different names (same address and phone number) and have been ripping people off all over the country, Some of their sales people have even been arrested.
When I called the bank to run a stop payment on the check they told me that it would cost $30 to process it. How convenient for quality subscriptions, they make it inconvenient to do this. Fortunatly for me however, my bank was kind enough to waive the fee and I will not take a hit. I'm willing to bet that many of my neighbors will not be so lucky.
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