The people who come to your door talking about helping shelters and selling books...

[Gravitycollapse]

I've run into these people a few times and another group just knocked at my door. It sounds like bullshit to me.

They want me to buy books with certain point values that allow them to get special rewards. Is this a scam?

[Curmudgeoness]

1. I don't know if you call it a scam, but

they are not what they claim to be either. I say it is not a scam in that you will get what you order, at least in the cases I know about. My niece worked for one of these companies once. These companies are scum, and the "students" are not students at all. They are just recruited from places where desperate kids hang out. They are moved from one area to another, housed in crappy motels, and pushed hard to make sales. So you are being mislead to do a pity-buy. It is all about profits from these fly-by-night companies.

[seabeyond]

2. exactly. nt

[Hekate]

3. Tell them you need to do some research first and to give you contact info

That has twofold benefits: it should get rid of them quickly, and you should be able to check out their story.

If they are teens and younger, I ask which school they go to -- 9 times out of 10 they are nowhere near local to us. Somebody brings them in by the vanload from 50+ miles away and drops them off to scour our tract. I haven't even bothered calling the Sheriff, because i don't have enough info, but it really rubs me the wrong way. I don't want to hurt the feelings of kids, so I just tell them we only support the local schools (100% true).

[TlalocW]

4. Easy enough to get rid of them

Start insisting on telling them about Jehovah.

TlalocW