Sumner Shortcuts

The Tennessean has an article this week about a new scam going around Hendersonville.  Teenagers come to your door, drop details about your neighbors (names, addresses, what have you) along with a sob story about needing $20 for something (to help a local sports team go to some tournament or something)… and they are so convincing in their performance that several local citizens have been burned.

Now… I have not heard of or experienced this scam.  However, I have had five teenagers peddling phony stories at my door in the last 9 months.  Four of them were selling magazine subscriptions–they talked up some contest for local students to sell the most subscriptions.  Thankfully, I had read a lot about this particular scam already.

But even when I almost immediately cut them off and told them I wasn’t interested, they persisted.  Two of them were rather charming and seemed harmless enough.  One of them was a bit aggressive, even goading me with “But you haven’t even heard what I have to say yet” and “Well, if you’re sure you want to throw away a great deal.”

Two of them even came to my door on the same night–part of the sales pitch is that they are competing with their classmates… so if I buy a magazine from them they get to put a sticker on my door that tells the other teens to skip me.  Nothing like a veiled threat as a sales tactic–”buy from me or my coworkers will harass you too!”

All four magazine scammers had a similar salmon-colored laminated card with magazine names on it.  DO NOT GIVE THESE PEOPLE ANY MONEY.  You will never see magazines.  This is an out and out scam.

The most recent was this week, Monday night.  Two teens at my door.  Before I even got the door open all the way the gal started talking.  She said, “Don’t feel picked on!  We’re knocking on every door.  Have you ever heard of the High School Communication Awards?”  I said, “No, and frankly I don’t want to.  Good luck, though.”  I timed it so the door would be completely closed as I finished my last syllable.  Success!

Listen, there are stories of some of these teenage door-to-door scammers getting violent.  Many of these people are part of a travelling crew.  They go from town to town, and the salespeople all report to a boss who is often quite demanding.  Some of the stories and articles I’ve read indicate that the head scammers specifically recruit runaways and drug addicts, and use drugs and alcohol as a sales motivator.  Seriously.  Go do some Google News searches on this stuff–it’s an epidemic.

Between the annoyance and the possible escalation, I’m pretty much inclined to just not answer my door anymore.

Anyway, be careful.  Don’t just believe whatever some teenager on your doorstep tells you.  And maybe don’t send your teenager out door-to-door to sell cheese for the school band or whatever.  Sounds like there are a bunch of different types of stories and scams related to teenagers knocking on your door.  Better to be safe than sorry.

I humbly submit that any school athletic team that needs to raise money for a tournament can find a better way to do it than sending kids door-to-door.  What a shame that we have to be so distrusting and cynical in today’s world.