I feel really effing stupid right now
 

But I suppose that's what I get for being such a damned fool and listening to a slick door to door salesman's pitch when I'm exhausted and hungry.

Long story short, if KLMN Readers Services guy comes to your door, send him away.

Getting scammed was bad enough, because I'm smarter than that shit; it's the amount of money that sickens me. :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

So yeah, at least FOFC can get some use out of my fuckup by not falling for it and a reminder not to trust door to door salespeople. Like ever.

Details?

What are you going to do with 40 subscriptions to Vibe?

That sucks Izulde, I'm sorry to hear this happened.

*takes a deep breath*

Long story short, I was in the bath, trying to just zone out after a stressful day, when my roommates shouted for me to come to the door. They're native Chinese who haven't been in the US that long, so their English isn't very good.

There's a guy standing there and he starts talking about how he's in this contest, can win money to pay for voice lessons and how he has this dream about being on American Idol, etc. Literally sings for us and he was quite good, in all honesty. Now, I know this is going to be some magazine subscription thing, but I'm thinking okay, maybe I'll buy a magazine, help support the dream, etc (admittedly I was thinking of my own MFA hopes here).

So then he tells me he only needs 60 points to meet his max goal. Now, keep in mind, I'm tired, stressed and still hungry by this point and not thinking clearly at all. But I pick out a magazine and then he's talking about how I can gift one of the magazines to a family in need and all this and that. My fogged over brain thinks okay I'll get him his 60 points so he can be done with it, so I gift a magazine.

Total price.. $184. By this time he'd written out the receipts, so I felt obligated, even though if I was thinking clearly, I would've told him no, or at least just gone the cheaper of the two. But I wasn't so I paid it.

Then after he leaves, I'm feeling really, really sick, like on top of my already physical and mental stress state that's been going on for months. So I google the name, KLMN Reader Services, and it's a fucking scam. I don't hold out much hope for the cancellation notices and I have a sinking feeling that if I do send in, that just gets my name and address on a ton of junk mailing lists.

So yeah... I'm smarter than this which really pisses me off and I'm doubly pissed off because I can't afford that kind of money. I'm a fucking grad student for Chrissakes.

Don't you have three days to cancel? Not sure if it's just Iowa law but here anything you buy from a door to door, unless you sign something and opt out, you do(they'll try to tell you if you sign this we can ship it right away, not explaining you're giving up your 3 day refusal rights).

It's been awhile for me, my wife bought a vacuum cleaner:banghead: shortly after we were married (1980), but I believe in their paperwork they also had to have a phone number to call to cancel the order. In her defense, though it was a lot of money, it did run for years and did a good job.

edit: See you posted while I was writing this.

$184?? what'd you write a check? pay him cash?

if you wrote a check just cancel it. if you paid him cash yeah you're fucked.

Yeah the cancellation thing on the back says 3 business days from the sale date, but I don't think anyone's had any luck with it.

And yes, I paid cash, so I"m pretty much fucked.

bingo.

ouch.

oh. well that sucks.

Takes me back to a magazine offer I got at work. Called to the phone and some chick wasting my time offering me magazines, all I have to do is pay the postage.

She read off what I'd get so I asked her what's the postage. She told me (long time ago don't recall the figure exactly per mag) and I started to laugh. She's like "what?" I said can you do math? Nothing but a couple of seconds of silence from her. I said "well if you could you'd see the postage for my "free" mags is going to come to about $280. Now do you see why I'm laughing? Click!

Ouch... was hoping you had written a check.

Reading up on the scam, it looks like some of the "salesmen" actually changed the values on checks, as well, though.

I'd try to cancel, but I would guess that the cash will never be reported.

Most likely not.

That sucks, making a stupid gaff of my own this weekend that is costing $223.00 to get my computer fixed I feel your pain.

It really sucks when you can't trust anyone doing this shit anymore, because you end up sending the legit ones away too.

Get that no soliciting sign up.

You had 184 dollars of cash on you?

OH a scam. When I saw the title, I figured you'd posted an ill advised photo of yourself on the internet.

There's two numbers. One is the official 757 818 9497 number that's always full.

But the sales agent wrote down another number that I think he said was the owner's, which is 646 area code. I looked up the full number and it says it's a cell phone in NYC.

Not on me, no.

Yeah I think I'll let the apartment managers know that these guys are in the neighborhood. I already told my roommates if a salesperson comes to the door, just send them away.

You went to the ATM to get cash out to give to these guys?

No. I have a lockbox in my room where I keep some cash.

Address?


/kidding

When you talk about your native Chinese roommates and your strongbox I keep getting a picture in my mind of Kramer and his three Japanese guys that lived in his dresser. Not sure this will lighten your mood at all but I did just fall for the meat truck scam a few weeks ago. Got some decent tasting steak out of the deal but after calculating I think I paid like $10/lb for it. Not exactly a deal. Maybe in the end you will end up getting the magazines?

Don't beat yourself up. We all make mistakes like this.

I had to stop reading after this, can someone summarize?

Really sorry to hear about that Izulde. While I have never fallen for a door-to-door type scam I once had a seemingly nice stranger take serious advantage of me. It happens to everyone and I can understand the mixture of feelings you probably have right now. It is a shame that there are people in our society that prey on others.


You mean something like this? (hoping Izulde can still get a laugh out of it, not trying to kick a man when he is down)

Hahaha! I still remember that one.

And thanks, guys. I'll just chalk it up as a lesson learned to make sure I take better care of myself to prevent brain fog.

I know being scammed feels like shit, but at least it's just $184.

That shit happens....at least it was just cash. With a check they might be trying to raid your accounts by now.

For 184 you could have lost your virginity.

Kidding.

:)

noop

For 184 Noop would have taken it himself ;)

These guys were in my neighborhood a while back. I parked on the street across from my house and tried to wait them out to avoid confrontation. One spotted me and came to my car door. Before he could get out how many points he needed, I handed him a Five and said, here's a donation, no magazines for me.

I let them in my house and gave them drinks and let them use my bathroom, so you are officially the SECOND most gullible person in America.

Did you ask him for advice on how to launder money, and then told him your master plan to take the fractions of pennies from bank transactions?

I dont think anyones cause could have made me give up 184 dollars, even if I agreed in principle. Once they would have told me that number, I would have said um, no. But sucks that they scammed you.

Yeah once I heard the amount I would have said, "Get out of my fucking house, I can get those for $4 on the Intarwebs!"

I don't think I've had 184 dollars on me, in cash, maybe at any point in the last 5 years. Which sucks, cause I really like magazines.

Never pay cash for anything except strippers and casino gambling.

Everything else, you want to be tracable where the money goes.

With this thing, the idol at your door is going to scam the scammers - he keeps the dough and rips up your order slips.

In all seriousness - how the *#(&% could you fall for this?


FWIW - the 757 number is in this area, Hampton Roads, VA.

I dunno. I think I'd rather be out $200 in cash than my credit card or bank account number on a check.

SI

Call the police and let them know these guys are in your neighborhood. We've had good luck catching some of these guys around here. As soon as they knock on someone's door, the e-mail goes out and the police get alerted, and once the police get into the neighborhood a phone call or two pins down their location.

These guys usually are not associated with identity theft - they only steal the money you authorize them to steal.

To each his own though. Paying cash, they can steal whatever you give them, paying by cc, you'd get it all back from a simple protest.

You should probably watch this about three times. There simply aren't enough slaps for you in one single viewing.

My scammed moment: Guy sits next to me at the NY Port Authority where I'm waiting for a bus and VERY tired. I stress that I was sleep deprived & just wanted to get on the friggin' Greyhound. So after a couple minutes the guy does the usual "where you heading?" stuff & tells me his destination, etc. Then he says he's going to make a quick run to the liquor store & asks me to watch his bag... then asks if I want anything. I'm tired so I give him $20 for some Jack Daniels. He split & something just didn't feel right... Sure enough his suitcase looked like it was pulled from the trash. Opening it, it had some trash in it.

You're not the only one. :(

Oh those minorities Izulde

Oh, and please tell us that this group of Chinese roommates are all female so that we have an interesting subplot.

I once bought a $1500 Kirby vacuum cleaner from a door-to-door salesman because he showed up while I had a fever of 102.

My entire house is hardwood floors and tile. :)

(That said, I've had it for five years now and it is far and away the best vacuum cleaner I've ever owned. It'll probably outlive me.)

From my summer selling books door-to-door (in uh 1995, but presumably still relevant), these signs might have the OPPOSITE effect.

In "sales school", we were told to intentionally go TO these houses. The reasoning is that the people inside were likely more susceptible to sales pitches, thus having to put the sign up. If they answered and got angry and said "see the sign?", we were told to feign ignorance and politely continue into our sales pitch.