Stranger Danger!

Thank you, jill, for telling us about this scam. I hate it when strangers come to my door. I remember when I was little, my mom would make all us kids be quiet and she would not answer the door when a stranger came. I never really understood that behavior until I got "very mature." I just don't want to spend my time dealing with such people--either they are selling something, asking questions, politically stumping, or proselytizing. Or in the case of what 's going on in your town, jill, they are up to no good.

Good thinking jillhill. The conman's pride in his job is to make him sound totally believable. Just don't let anyone in. If they want a water sample then get one from the outside tap or from the road.

I get so irrated when I hear something like this happen. Taking advantage of the public is such a lazy way to make a living. I don't answer the door anymore at all especially if I am home alone. Our kids have keys and never ring the bell and rarely does anyone stop by without calling first. Thanks for the warning. Even though I don't live in your state it's good to know all these things are happening since they happen all over.

Thanks,im hre in the UK and im constantly telling mum not to open the front door to anyone that she deosnt nknow,then apparently yesterday she had a couple of young chaps who were Mormons ,she said they were extremely pleasant but I try to tell her that its just not safe to trust anyone these days,and that is no reflection on her Mormon visitors,but she is elderly ,but refuses to admit it!!lol she is young at heart,and I just wished that she wouldnt open up all of the time.

I appreciate your putting this up for discussion. I have heard of these scams before but it doesn't hurt for ourselves as a society to take heed. People do things like this and I don't know why. I realize that they are trying to take advantage of innocent people but I worry about our elderly. They have been scammed so many times. Yes, I will be careful and I am going to call the law if I see suspicious activity.

oh god wow thank you for sharing this this is a new one people are trying thank you agian for sharing

its so dangerous. there are so many way some bad people are inventing to do damage to the others, its really innovative way. people should be careful

Thanks for sharing this. This is good information to know. There are so many people out there that want to take advantage of others. The key to not getting taking advantage of is awareness. This is a excellent post.

The things people come up with these days huh? desperate times. Thanks for the heads up. I did hear something on the news earlier on this week about that.

Now, this is what I call being a responsible citizen ! You reached out to so many people by this discussion and it was good thinking, warning others too. I am sure, everybody who read about it has become more aware and will be immediately put on guard if anybody comes looking for a water sample. Three cheers to you !

It has happened to us where people from the city wanted to inspect something and we let them in. When they left, I felt that we were wrong to let them in without asking for a job order but we wanted to be nice and cooperative.

thnaks jillhill, few months ago we had a case/incident in are society that few man had come to sell something and enter the house, these were criminals they killed the wife and a five years old child . robbed the house. if they wanted to rob. why did they killed. it was a shocking. hope this doesnt happen with anyone. now people are more carefull.

hi jill the water scheme made me think of the young man who c ame to my door late one night when my son was working super late.I am 81 and handicapped. so I got my trusty baseball bat thatbelongedto my son and went to the door, the scruffy young man said he was selling magazines so he could earn points to make a trip to south america, well he was at least twenty four and he was not from the high school he said he was from. this man had needle tracks on his arms, and I had been a nurses aid for years and knew a junkie when i saw one. he asked me for a glass of water i told him to wait outside and I would bring him a paper cup of water which I did. he started again on the magazine bit and I got fed up. I told him I had just called the police and then I waved my sons baseballbat hard at him. He took off running like a bat out of you know where, and took the paper cup with him. I locked my door then sat down and shook for awhile. my son when I told him about the kid said I really should have called the police, but thats hard to do, we live over thec ity line so have to call the sheriffsdept instead. anyway my bat waving scared him off.

This is another one that is being carried out--- This has been verified by the FBI (their link is also included below). Please pass this on to everyone in your email address book. It is spreading fast so be prepared should you get this call. Most of us take those summonses for jury duty seriously, but enough people skip out on their civic duty, that a new and ominous kind of fraud has surfaced. The caller claims to be a jury coordinator. If you protest that you never received a summons for jury duty, the scammer asks you for your Social Security number and date of birth so he or she can verify the information and cancel the arrest warrant. Give out any of this information and bingo; your identity was just stolen. The fraud has been reported so far in 11 states, including Oklahoma , Illinois , and Colorado . This (swi ndle) is particularly insidious because they use intimidation over the phone to try to bully people into giving information by pretending they are with the court system. The FBI and the federal court system have issued nationwide alerts on their web sites, warning consumers about the fraud. Check it out here: http://www.fbi.gov/page2/june06/jury_scams060206.htm And here: http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/juryduty.asp

we have had that here.. some people make their name tags look legit and some drive the companys car to where you will trust them more