BBB: Students peddling magazines at the door could be fraudsters

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Knock Knock.

Who’s there?

Scammers!

The Better Business Bureau issued an alert today about an increase in fraud among door-to-door, student magazine salespeople. The publication peddlers take orders, but the magazines never arrive. Typically, the students have a hard-luck story or say they are earning money for a charity.

‘Because sales representatives are typically high school or college-age, victims readily believe the potentially fictitious sales pitch and often pay several hundred dollars for the subscriptions,’ says BBB spokesman Steve Cox.

The BBB has received more than 1,000 complaints about fake magazine sales in the last year from 46 states, including California.

In some cases the, students were also victims, according to the BBB. They were hired by companies to sell magazines door-to-door and then not given their promised commissions. Cox says the young people were ‘forced to work long hours, endure substandard living conditions and have their wages withheld from them.’

Here’s a warning sign that you might be getting ripped off: You must be offered a cancellation form anytime you spend $25 or more on products from a door-to-door salesperson, according to the Federal Trade Commission’s cooling off rule. Then you have three days to cancel.

If you’re not offered a cancellation form, don’t buy. Of course, if the salesperson were a fraudster, you probably wouldn’t see a refund, anyway. Perhaps the best way to make sure a sale is legit is to buy from students you know, or to check with the school the student supposedly represents.

-- David Colker