Sunshine Subscription Agency - SSA I was scammed by a door to door salesman Coral Springs Florida
On September 18, 2008 I was scammed paying $42 for 12 issues of Elle magazine. That day was just as normal as any other day except for when I heard a knock at the door. I looked out the window to see who it was and saw a young man, he looked like he was about 23 or so.
I let him in because I thought he was one of my fiancee's friends or something. He started giving a speech about magazines and such. I had heard the same speech just 2 days before by a girl with short blonde hair, and she looked to be the same age as the boy. She had a bunch of scratches and bruises on her face. Almost like she had been in a car crash.
Well anyways this guy introduced himself as Ronnie Hogan, and said that he goes to Arkansas Tech which is a college in Arkansas. He said he would get points for every magazine subscription he sold, and that the points were going towards a trip to cancun or something.
He said he was studying business management in college. Then immediatly after his entire speech he asked me and my fiancee if we knew where to get some marijuana. Of course we said no and he just went on about how he has been looking for some and that he really wants to get high.
I don't even know why I still payed him for magazines after that. I just wanted the magazine and didn't even think about the fact that he was scamming me. I couldn't find my checkbook when I went to pay him so I gave him 42 dollars cash.
Everyone keep in mind that when someone comes up to your door like that just don't answer it. All of their papers look legit cause they are laminated and they have receipts that they fill out, and you can choose if you want it to be sent as a gift or not. The people will act like they are your best friend but they are just wanting your money so they can go party or something.
And one more thing..never think that it can't happen to you, that's what I thought. Just always be aware .
Destiny
clarksville, Arkansas
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Sarah1987
Wilmington,North Carolina,
U.S.A.
I worked for them and had NO idea it was a scam!
#2UPDATE EX-employee responds
Sat, February 07, 2009
In 2007 i worked for these people. I had just lost my job, and was staying in a local hotel in Wilmington, NC for the night with 2 of my friends. Well the next morning we were down in the lobby having the free continental breakfast, where we met all these other people. there were soo many of them. so we decided to ask if they were all together. so then they told us that they worked for this company that sells magazines door to door, and travel around doing it. then they asked if we were looking for jobs. well i had just lost mine, so i definitely was. and my 2 friends were also looking for work. And i was only 19, so i wasn't very skeptical, and didn't ask many questions. all i knew was that we were going to get payed cash everyday, and we would get to travel. so it all sounded pretty good to me. So that night, one of the guys drove me to my Dads place to grab some of my clothes and we went back to the hotel. The next day we were split up.
Me and my boyfriend were dropped off at the bus station downtown, and our friend was staying with that group at the hotel. that night we got to Boiling Spring Lakes, NC. we were picked up by this man, and were taken to another hotel where we met the big boss, and were signed up and everything. we had to fill out an application that looked just like any other one. And they told us that if we decided we didn't like the job, then they would buy us a bus ticket back to wherever we were picked up. So i thought, ok that's good to know. I couldn't believe how many other young people were there. there was 2-4 people per room, and the hotels were always on the cheap side. Every morning we'd have these meetings where one guy would like try and pump everyone up, and he'd give out extra money to the people who had sold the most the previous day. the way we got paid was like i said every night. even if you didn't sell any magazines, they'd give you $20 to eat.
I didn't sell anything the whole first week. I did not like the other people once i got to know them, because every night when we got payed they'd all go looking for weed, and other much worse things. We pretty much kept to ourselves. So anyways, everyday we would meet up within smaller teams that we'd been assigned to of about 5-8 people. We'd leave to hotel everyday in vans. We would go have breakfast somewhere, and then we were dropped off in various neighborhoods.
The whole first week i was dropped off with someone else to be trained. and this girl was very good at it, Crystal, she was from Buffalo, NY and was very pushy. But she would always manage to make the people laugh. Like when the people were making out the checks, she'd always say to make it out to Sunshine Subscription Agency or S.S.A. then she's say or men backwards. The women would always get a laugh outta that one.
Anyways what finally made me super skeptical, and freaked me out about the whole thing, was one day when i was out with Crystal. We had sold this lady one or two magazines, and about five minutes later we were still in the neighborhood, when all of a sudden the lady pulls up beside us in her car all frantic. She's all red faced and saying she needs her check back. I was stunned, and was like "ok, give it back to her". But Crystal tells her that she needs the receipt back first. So the lady rushes off back to her house, and is back in a flash with the receipt in hand. Crystal finally gives it back, and the women says that she had just looked us up online on this very website, and that it was all a scam. i was completely surprised and freaked out to say the least.
A couple of days later, when i convinced my boyfriend, and our friend that this whole thing seemed shady to me, we told them we wanted our bus tickets back home. And that's what we did. we were dropped off early in the morning at the bus station in either Norfolk, VA or Virginia Beach, VA, i cant recall which. We were back home in Wilmington the next morning.
Although i had no idea this whole thing was a scam i felt horrible about it, and i still do and its been almost 2 years now. i had sold 2 magazines to one person, and 1 to another on my own. And at the time i was actually proud of myself. Now i just feel like a complete idiot, who was completely taken advantage of, just like our customers. i wish i had more information about the people in charge. All i can recall is that our big boss' name was Vinny, if you can believe that.