Magazine Solicitors Scam

[Dana of Highland Park]

My husband fell for this door-to-door magazine solicitors scam tonight. I just wanted to remind everyone to be aware. The lone girl came to our door at 8:15 PM asking us to buy a magazine subscription to help her earn points and funding for her softball team’s trip to the championships in Florida. She even referenced a news story about their team on KOMO-TV. She specifically drops neighbors names who gave and says she lives with her ‘nana and papa’ two streets away and she’s a neighbor herself. She also asks about ones profession, saying she’ll earn more points if you’re in a certain line of work.

My husband said he doesn’t need any magazines – but wanted to help her, so he donated a subscription to, according to her, a Veterans community center. He only wanted to give her a small donation, but she pushed for the subscription, which totals $65 (includes $15 ‘handling’).

I knew as soon as I heard him tell the story that it was a scam. He immediately went out to find her as it had only been five min. since she left – to no avail. We then drove up and down the area roads. She was gone.

Googling brought up so many similar experiences on the West Seattle blog. In fact, similar pitches by young people have come to our door and I’ve been the one who has turned them away. My husband just didn’t know about this… scammy plague.

I’ve already paid $30 to our bank for a stop check request and we’re mailing in the cancellation request on the sales receipt we got – which will yield us nothing, but you have to try.

I thought I should post as a warning (and this is my first ever post in this forum). I don’t want anyone else to have this happen to them.

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[JoB]

thanks for the heads up

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[Huindekmi]

My wife encountered this same lady last week. She was carrying a lolipop (probably to make herself seem younger) and asking those same questions. Unfortunately, my wife gave the girl info about our jobs and other stuff before catching on. Same thing.. she claimed to live a couple of blocks away, but when asked which street she lived on, she couldn’t answer. Just somehow couldn’t remember her address.

Luckily, we didn’t donate or purchase anything from her. This was close to Schmitz Park Elementary, so it appears she’s getting around (and lives a couple of blocks away from everywhere).

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[Dana of Highland Park]

Glad you and your wife avoided the trap. Glad alarms went off in your wife’s intuition when the personal questions began. It seems these young people are scripted to hit all those trigger points with charm to hook us. But that’s also what can give them away. No *real* kid selling for school projects ever is so excited about that task.

I forgot to mention, for the record, the name of supposed company:

Fit for Life, Inc., P.O. Box 1058, Kittredge, CO 80457

This is the company that supplies a receipt and you have to sign it. By doing so, you agree to paying a $20 fee if our check is “returned, canceled, insufficient funds or account closed”. They say they are a for-profit company, too, and, in all caps: “CHECKS DEPOSITED IMMEDIATELY”. Let’s hope my bank stop check happens first, because I read online that getting a refund, even if done in the 3-day cancellation window, results in something between a big zero – or eventually getting a check that bounces.

I think the worse of all this is feeling like being made a fool of – even though I’m happy to tell all my West Seattle neighbors.

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[km935]

Dana of HP-be sure to check with your bank to find out how long the cancellation lasts. I found out the hard way that even after paying the cancellation fee, BOA’s “cancellation” will only last 6 months. You may need to pay again to renew the stop payment. I had an account with BOA and paid them for a stop payment on a check that was allegedly “lost in the mail.” Over a year later, the check was cashed in another state and not only did I lose the money, I got charged for an overdraft on my account. I closed my account and changed to BECU following the wretched response from BOA. BECU has the same 6 month time limit, but now I am aware of it.

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[cs in hp]

She came to our door last night too with the same story, right at the kid’s bed time. Said she’d come back at a better time- I asked her where she lived since she said she was a neighbor- she looked up to the left (big giveaway that someone’s not telling the truth), and then said 14th. And I said- oh, what cross street? and she said thwistle. and then i knew she really wasn’t from here- thwistle? haha! she did say something about her nana and papa, and that she was from Tacoma.

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[Dana of Highland Park]

CS in HP – Amazing to hear you had the same knock on your door as I did. “Thwistle” – haha. And 14th, whereas she told me she lived on 7th (we live on 5th). I’ll keep in mind the ‘look to the left’ tell.

KM935 – Thanks for the education on stop payments on checks. I talked to Bank of America the next morning to confirm that my stop payment went through and inquire if the scammer was able to circumvent. I have to give props to B of A: they waived my $30 fee and said the stop payment is in effect for 1 year, whereas the check is only good for 6 mos. Be warned on one point: while a stop payment will not let a paper check get processed, if the scammer has a method to somehow convert the payment electronically, it circumvents the stop payment. I don’t know what that means, but B of A said it is rare and generally only used by other financial institutions and utilities.

I’m thinking (hoping) the scam is simply to lie in order to pray on sympathies (local sports team, female, neighbor, help vets) and not to defraud by stealing identities from checks. In fact, the arms-length magazine distributors are just letting a middleman resell a subscription and keep the difference, much like a school fundraiser (except worlds apart in intent).

So I sent off a certified letter to Fit for Life to cancel any and all commitment to them and I hope I’m done with that lesson.

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