Scam!

I have an impressive looking large dog. I often go to the door with dog on leash. It deters every one. Even Jehovah Witnesses. So to answer you question, no I haven't been scammed.

K.:

OOH MY!!! We had two boys come by here a few years ago stating they were selling vacuum cleaners - but only had an empty backpack and a clip board. Yeah - right. I called the police right away.

But no, luckily, we haven't been taken by a scam!! Whew!!

Once, on purpose. Dude came to the door at 2am saying he and his boyfriend had been locked out / just moved in / no debit card and can't get to the bank till morning / needed some money for the locksmith ($60 in total, they "needed" $13).

I knew it was a scam, he'd even been in the paper lately about running this scam in various neighborhoods.

It was worth the $13 to me to have him go away & not have any kind of animus towards this address. These types of people often 'get back' at those who turn them down with minor (albeit expensive) forms of vandalism &/or theft even if they just leave... and I didn't want an angry man on my porch with just my child and myself at home.

This just happened at our office last week. People claiming to be from the electric company and wanting to see if our bill was accurate. Ummmm if you were really from the electric company where is your business card, where is a number I could call the electric company to confirm who you are and IF you are the electric company wouldn't you already have this info! Ya - after me pointing this all out to them they walked out the door with their tail between their legs.

One thing I want to warn people about. You are right, these kids go around the neighborhood looking to see who is home and who has a dog, etc., with the intent to rob the houses that are empty. So PLEASE open the door or at least yell at them through the door so they know you are home and will move on. If you don't acknowledge them, they will try to break in and you could find yourself in a very dangerous situation.

Now on to my scam story. I had applied on line to be a secret shopper. A few months later, I get a packet in the mail. A check to be deposited into my checking account and instructions to go to three separate stores and spend x amount at each. Then, with the balance of the funds I was to keep some and wire some to an address they provided. Ummm. So, just in case it was legit I didn't want to ignore it - could use the money! So what I did was open up a separate bank account using their check. That way, none of my personal checking account information would be on their cancelled check. I waited to see if their check cleared before I did any shopping, which was not what they wanted me to do. They wanted me to go shopping right away. They even called me after 2 days to see what was going on and I told them I was waiting for their check to clear. Then 2 days later I called the bank and sure enough, their check bounced. They actually called me again to see what happened since I had not wired them any funds and had not provided any secret shopper feedback. I told them that their check bounced. The guy said "Oh, wow. Hold on a moment." And he never came back on the phone. I never heard from them again, but I did get a notice from the bank about depositing a fraudulent check!

I once had someone come to my door saying he worked for the gas company and needed to come in to read the meter. He tried pretty hard too because the gas company was actually working on the next block and he wore one of those reflective vests. But he did not have the flashlight and reader log they carry. PLUS, he had no clue my meter was outside. Ha, not working buddy. Another time someone from electric needed to enter my home to check the wiring from the meter. Once the wires enter your house, the problem is yours, not theirs so they won;t do anything for you unless YOU make an appt for them to come out-sometime in the next decade.
To your what happened, oh yeah. They will do anything for that account number. I was slammed last summer on my phone service. I am still waiting for my refund. I will be sending them a letter with a copy I am sending to the attorney general also.

A few months back a man knocked on my door and claimed to be with our cable company...he had a clipboard with the Comcast logo but no clothing or work vehicle that I saw...he claimed that for a nominal fee, if I switched the name on my account he could give me a substantial discount? It was apparent from the start something was not right! I had the screen door still closed and I have a great BIG dog who was standing to my right ( and is wickedly trained :) but out of sight to the man...I said 'No Thank you' and took a step back...to which he took a step forward and tried to keep talking and my dog stepped in between me and the screen and gave him a nice low but SERIOUS growl...it was *perfect*...couldn't have asked for anything better! He turned right around and left...no 'thank you anyway' or 'thanks for your time'...no nothing! He was, without a doubt, a scam artist and I was so very thankful I had my BIG dog, Brooks...gosh, I love my dog! :)

That was probably some company wanting you to switch to them. They hire a lot of young men to go door to door to sign you up. I'm not sure what info anyone can get to "scam" someone off their electric bill. There are no credit card numbers, dl numbers or ss numbers on it.

Never been taken but we've had people come to the door claiming to be this or that. The most recent we had teens come to our door on Thursday and again on Friday at different times. The clincher was on Saturday night at 7 PM a teen came to our door claiming to be from XYZ company that they'd claimed to be from Friday as well. Friday I had answered the door. Saturday my husband did. I yelled from the couch that they were here yesterday and had no reason to come back.
I called the police moments after my husband sat down. My husband texted one of our neighbors and after a few minutes went outside to check with the neighbor on the other side of us. The teen had passed by the 2 houses with dogs and never even knocked on the door.
The police came to do a drive by, I have no idea if they found him as they didn't notify me, but I don't know if they would.
There has been an increase in home burglaries around here and it's these kinds of guys scoping out the neighborhood.
At this point I barely open the door enough to peak out (we have a kitten that we're training to not sneak out the door anymore which helps!). I don't even let them finish. I cut them off, tell them I'm not interested and shut the door and lock it in their face. I had one of those teens as I'm closing the door act all hurt and say aren't you even going to give me a chance..I said no loudly as I finished closing and locking the door.

My husband gave $100 to a guy that came to our house for Orlando boys and girls Clubs, which I have no problem, but he did say we were going to get magazines in the mail.
We haven't gotten any and I am start to wonder if we have being scam too.
I think you did the right thing.

Yes this is a scam they do this and say we need to check your water pressure etc. Then while you go with one guy to check the water pressure, one waiting outside comes and steals your laptop, ipad, any little eletronic they can and who knows what else they could do. So glad you called the police and teh carrier. Good instincts and thanks for warning others by posting this.

I am so happy that you did not fall for this scam artist! I am so sorry this happened but glad you reported it and hopefully this thief will get caught!

I (knock on wood) have been fortunate to not lose alot with scams but did fall for one that I felt incredibly silly for. I was told I won a large sum of money and then spoke with someone in the UK who wanted to get all my info to wire the money to me etc. I luckily didnt fall for it and told him to take a hike and he would not be getting ANY personal info from me and would be turning over all papers to the police. They had a bunch of calls about this guy and got a case going......Hang in there--I know it doesn't feel good, but thankfully you are ok and you didn't fall for it!

M

I have had them come to my door with the same scam. They want you to switch your Gas/Electric Company stating that you will have a lower bill. I always tell them not to come back and that we are happy with our company now. I am glad you didn't fall for it.

I don't know if this is legit or not as I've had a few people come to my door and several phone calls for this type of service. Some states including both IL and CT have new laws designed to deregulate the power companies, so there are new smaller companies out there trying to establish themselves.

Regardless, I would not give them my electric bill or any other information.

I called the cops on some guy in street clothes and no truck knocking on doors and not leaving a flyer. My friend's neighborhood had people pretending to be a tree trimming service but they were really scoping the neighborhood. The cops came out to check them out.

My husband almost got scammed by that one. He figures no one would try to pull the wool over his eyes about anything (he's a man), SO HE LET THE GUY IN. I pulled him aside as he pulled out the bill and told him to get rid of the guy. Somehow he did without much damage. I think these guys are legit, but not, so to speak. You do kind of get trapped. We also had some window guy who came to our house and almost forced fiftythousand dollars out the window haha. We got him out in a couple of hours. And finally my total stupidity, some years back was a make money at home scheme where you spend about fifty dollars and look up old mortgages or something. I got a couple of papers in the mail and that was it. It was a post office box (uh duh I was young). End of story, hopefully I have learned. I seem to remember a couple of others...

I had a guy come up to the door and once and ask for some guy. I told him that there is no one here by that name. Then he told me that "Gary" had him paint our house # on the curb and asked if WE'D pay the $50 for it! Lol. Uh.... No.

Cant imagine what would be on your bill that they need to see to adjust it. They bring up the account on a computer at their office and change stuff from there. What a shame that this person was so stupid to actually think youd fall for it. Whats worse is, there are people who would be taken by this scam and let the guy in.

In our neighborhood we have the option to sign up for the "do not solicit" list. Anyone who wishes to go door to door must stop at the borough building first and get a permit and the list.

If someone shows up at my door I know they did not follow protocol. I have zero tolerance for that so I've been known to call the borough and let them know that someone is out without a permit. Usually they'll send a police officer up to have a little chat with them.

I almost fell for the exact same "secret shopper" scam that Cheryl B. wrote about. There are so many sketchy things out there!