posted by maggie on Jun 18
Every summer there are a number of new people who are showing up and are ready to try to sell you something. That is the way it seems to go. If you live in certain neighborhoods it is of course worse than other neighborhoods, and every sales person is different. There have been increased reports of scammers and bad people roaming about the streets these days, so one should always be careful whom they open their door to.
If you are uncomfortable opening your door to the person don’t do it. If you are really uncomfortable opening the door call the police and let them know that there is someone creepy hanging around your neighborhood trying to get into houses. While you might feel like if he was really dangerous someone else will have already called the police that is rarely the case. Most other people are feeling like you are as well and assuming that someone else has already done it for them. This is how many people get away with it. It is also ok to call the police if they are still hanging around your house after you tell them to go away. If they are still on your property at this time it is now trespassing.
Ask them who they are and to state their business before you open the door to them. If you have a peep hole ask them to show you identification from their business before you think about opening the door. Many legitimate companies like Southwestern Company provide their sales people with identification from the company for this exact reason. Even if they show it to you through the peep hole don’t be afraid to open the door ask to see it in person and close the door again once they hand it to you. Examining it and a drivers license can give you a lot of information on if this person is legitimate. Tell them you are going to write down the information in case they turn out to be a scammer. If there does end up being a problem you can give the police some extra information. Use the information on the business identification to look them and to company up.
If the person is acting strangely don’t answer the door or if you already have tell them to go away and close the door on them. There are some older people who will dress up to look more like teens, tend to show up closer to sunset so it is harder to see them and say that they are selling something for a school trip or something else school related. These are more often than not scammers.
Be safe. Know which companies are safe companies to buy from and report to all companies any employee of theirs who was behaving oddly. If you would like more resources on what you can do to stay safe look at this Southwestern Company blog.