SUBMITTED: Saturday, August 31, 2002
POSTED: Sunday, September 01, 2002
Hey, Springfield!
You are just 20 minutes away from where the Fraud Chick was raised--Dawson, Illinois. Ah, I can still smell the sweet corn growing knee high in July--but those were my chicklet days.
Now on to your scam--yep, the scam. There are many unscrupulous magazine sales companies that pack a dozen or so teenagers into vans that travel the country in search of suckers. The aim of the kids is to sell overpriced subscriptions to the softhearted. The scheme is usually the same—a youthful individual shows up at the door claiming to be a local resident. The "kid" will claim to be a student of the local high school trying to win a contest. The one’s who have come to my door all used the same ruse—a high school class trip to Washington DC The local high school competing with the other town’s school.
Most of the sales people are in their twenties, just strung out and skinny enough to look younger. But there are usually a few teenage runaways in the group. The companies don’t treat the kids or sales people right. The company gets your money, not the kid—he only got a commission.
Here’s what you do—cancel your checks—all of them. The reason he had you write so many checks is two fold. First, he believes you will be less likely to put a stop payment on multiple checks because there is usually a $10 charge per check. So if you write four checks it would cost you $40 to stop the scam. The second reason is sort of sinister and I hope this isn’t true for your young visitor—but the more checks you write, the more checks they have to "wash." Washing is a trick used by cons to remove the ink used to write out the amount and replace it with a larger amount. So a $25 check can be changed to a $300 check.
Don’t think that you will actually get a magazine. Most of the time no magazine is received. Sometimes the scam is to walk away with your money. Other times it’s because the paperwork is so poorly managed that the fraudsters don’t get the order right.
So—place a stop payment on all of your checks and write the money off as a lesson in fraud. Better the bank get your $10 stop payment fee than a fraudster laughing all the way to the bank and then making fun of you to the rest of his gang. Not to mention the fact that you have probably been placed on a "sucker" or "sweetheart" list as an easy mark.
Good Luck