Thursday, October 31, 2013

Door-To-Door Scams Increasing

By Cornelius Nunev


Always be wary of people selling stuff door to door, as a number are rip-off artists. Besides Girl Scouts attempting to get people hooked on diabolically addicting cookies, there are a number of door-to-door frauds out there.

Door-to-door sales increasing

Many people end up needing payday loans to survive after getting hit by some kind of costly scam. There are a lot more door-to-door scams going on, according to NBC News, and it could cost you thousands of dollars.

There are a ton of intimidating sales tactics being practiced by the salesmen predators just trying to get as much cash as possible. There have been more grievances at the Better Business Agency for the door-to-door salesmen that never really do the task they are getting paid for.

A lot of salesmen out there are going door-to-door to sell legitimate items. You have to watch out and make sure you can figure out when it is a scam or not.

Magazine cons common

The most common door-to-door scam is a periodical scam. In all of 2011, there were 1,300 complaints, according to NBC News, at the BBB. This year there have already been over 1,000 grievances.

Typically, the con is that the door-to-door salesman will show up and sell a person one or several magazine subscriptions, only for the magazines to never arrive. It's also common for the magazine "sales" to be linked to some sort of fundraiser, often for a high school or some kind of educational trip.

Warnings have been issued in numerous areas recently; local authorities over bogus magazine subscriptions in the past few months include Lamar County, Colo., according to CBS Denver, the Dallas-Fort Worth area, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and Spokane, Wash., according to KHQ, a Spokane ABC affiliate. These are just a couple examples, as the scam is common.

A few other common scams

There are "security system" scams out there where someone will come to your door and offer burglar alarm sales. It will never actually arrive after payment or will be a really bad system, according to NBC News. There are also home repair cons.

There are some legitimate sales, but a ton of them are not, and it can be hard to turn away a poor kid who needs additional cash. Consumer Reports points out that alarm scams and periodical scams are much more common in the summertime when university and high school students are hired by scam companies to sell you stuff.

Also beware of Girl Scouts selling cookies. Those things are addicting.




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