[Vision2020] Suspicious door-to-door salesperson

[Tim Lohrmann]

Nancy,
     There was a young Hawaiian woman in our
neighborhood yesterday selling subscritions too. But I
didn't notice anything particularly suspicious about
her other than as you noticed--overly aggressive sales
techniques. 
     The situation you mention where the person came
back repeatedly does sound odd, but I've seen this
sort of sales crew activity in many areas. They go all
over the country and sell subscriptions with vague
references to some sort of trip or educational reward
so that customers may think there's a charitable
connection. It's actually a legitimate subscription
they are selling but it's not for any charity or
cause.  Their over friendliness is just the way
they're taught to sell. 
    I wouldn't worry about it too much. These folks
are most likely in another town by now and probably
won't be back for a year or so. 
    Tim Lohrmann



--- Nancy Chaney <nchaney@moscow.com> wrote:
> A note of caution about a woman going door-to-door
> in Moscow, purporting
> to sell magazine subscriptions: 
>  
> Today, a slender, young, casually dressed Caucasian
> woman with a
> European accent came to my friend's door while I was
> there. As a
> salesperson, she was startlingly aggressive and
> overly familiar.  The
> suspicious part is that after I left, my friend left
> for a meeting and
> saw the woman sitting on the corner, watching her
> drive away.  Upon her
> return, my friend learned that the woman had come
> back to the house and
> harassed her teenagers. One of the youngsters
> observed a white van
> dropping her off.  Neighbors said that she had asked
> to hang out on
> their yard swing while she waited for her ride. 
> 
> My friend wonders whether the woman was trying to
> take advantage of her
> children to sell magazine subscriptions, or
> believing that the house was
> empty, was coming back to scope it out. After my
> friend called the
> police to ask if anyone else had complained about
> the door-to-door
> people (They had-) and whether they had the
> necessary permit (They did
> not-) she saw the woman walk by her house a third
> time, hours after
> their first encounter.
> 
> My friend called neighbors and friends to find out
> if anyone else had
> similar visits. She learned that a woman fitting the
> description visited
> another central Moscow neighborhood yesterday. When
> a resident there
> refused the magazine subscriptions, the salesperson
> asked to come inside
> her house, ostensibly to write down the resident's
> name to give to her
> supervisor.  While sitting at the dining table, the
> salesperson was
> uncommonly chatty, looked around a lot and asked
> lots of questions. She
> kept pushing the magazine brochure at the resident,
> apparently trying to
> get her to hold it and look at it. When the
> salesperson left, she took
> the brochure with her.  As my friend tells it, "She
> left with a name and
> fingerprints."
> 
> Although, to my knowledge, no such person has
> visited my northeast
> Moscow neighborhood, I am unsettled by the story.
> Please report any
> similar suspicious incidents to our Moscow Police
> Department (882-2677).
> 
> Thank you for helping to keep Moscow a safe place. 
>  
> Nancy Chaney
>  
>  
>  
>  
> 


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