They're stupid, they had it coming
Over on the Absolute Write Forums there's a thread warning people to think twice about buying from magazine sellers here: http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42192

There's apparently many of these that aren't reputable. A reasonable, calm discussion about experiences with sellers and relating of news stories about sellers follows. The calm enviroment is not to last, however, and winds change as jfreedan blows in on page two with this:

From what I've read on these pages, these "kids" you speak of are 18 years old or older.

Is this some kind of joke, like the Halloween candy scare from the 80s?

People are kidnapping LEGAL ADULTS, rooming them in hotels, and sending them out to sell magazine subscriptions? :p

Door-to-door salesman scams are nothing new, but I have feeling this is some kind of hoax. It is kind of hard to kidnap people when you let them run around town you know. They certaintly aren't trying very hard.

You can just tell it'll go downhill after that, can't you?

Some of them may be cults, but I think most of this is just some people pretending they haven't done anything wrong when they get caught as apart of a scam, and looking for a way out.

Playing the "omg the devil made me do it, I'm a victim too!" card is the oldest excuse in the book.

So, I don't think these cases are really kidnaps or even cult slavery. It's just a bunch of very stupid people getting duped by slightly more intelligent, but still pretty dang stupid people.

As with most unskilled laborers, a minority of them are violent criminal-type people; most of them are probably just ignorant college students who think they can make some quick bucks without doing a lot of work.

Scam artists prey upon two types of people:

A) Compassionate people (ie "Please donate to the United Hezbollah Children's Fund!")
B ) Greedy people (ie "Hey dude, I can hook you up with some cheap cable!")

From what I've heard so far (Free Vacations, Plane Tickets, Living in a hotel, Travel, Quick Money), they are preying on greedy people who don't have a whole lot of common sense.

When I was about 17, I had someone send me a random email from my (now non-existent) personal website saying they had seen my picture and wanted to hire me to audition for a leading role in Power Rangers (I'm not making this up. This is true). I knew it was total BS, but I replied anyway just to see how far down the rabbit hole goes, and once I learned the guy was basically trying to solicit me for prostitution, I sent his info to the FBI.

It's not hard to avoid obvious scams if you're not greedy and can look at a situation with a clear head.

In the rest of that post he goes on to add that he himself would never fall for scams because he went to the school of hard knocks (the Army) and knows better. It keeps going back and forth with people trying to reason with him and gain a bit of empathy, but it does no good.

BTW, I'm in there (as Aubrey) but my comment was unrelated to the arguement and ignored, so I don't think this qualifies for

i_wank. If anyone disagrees, I'll more it.

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	(Anonymous) 2006-09-29 12:48 am UTC (link)
	In the rest of that post he goes on to add that he himself would never fall for scams because he went to the school of hard knocks (the Army) and knows better o rly: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/03/AR2006080301450.html (Reply to this)

gal_montag
2006-09-29 02:34 am UTC (link)

It's not summer unless there are droves of those people feeding the masses their bullshit lines to sell magazines. I would entertain myself by fucking with them.

Guy: I'm selling magazine subscriptions to pay help pay for college. I'm taking a class in public speaking and as part of the class I have to talk to ten people every day, so I was wondering if you could tell me how I'm doing.

Me: You should stand up straighter and not fidget so much. And you also shouldn't talk so fast.

Guy: ...Uh

Good times.

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moonjaguar
2006-09-29 05:57 am UTC (link)

jfreedan:If you look real hard, you can find news reports about everything from gas pumpers to lawyers murdering, assaulting and raping people. Does that mean there is some kind of epidemic of lawyers and doctors turning to violent crime?

No, it means this world has violent people in it, and a lot of them have a job. Obviously the lower paying jobs are going to have more violent people in them, because there is a reason they "cant find any other job" and it has to do with the kind of person they are. When even McDonalds won't hire you, there is a reason for that and I honestly don't have a hell of a lot of sympathy for these people because they put themselves exactly where they are.

Okay!

And nobody can go weeks without food in the US unless they are purposely starving themselves, because if you hang by a street corner with a sad face for an hour or two, someone is gonna stop their car and give you 100$.

I can earn $50-$100 an hour standing on a street corner, no sex involved? I'm gonna run right out tomorrow and get to work. Big money, here I come.

For the love of money, the dollar sign goes before the amount. Sheesh!

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mastervex
2006-09-29 06:57 am UTC (link)

You keep telling yourself that, jfreedan. As long as you pretend nobody has any serious difficulty in life unless they're a bad person, and that it's perfectly easy to get out of every bad situation in the world, you can feel nice and safe in your little bubble of concentrated stupidity. Nobody who's worse off than you deserves any compassion, because it's their own fault, and nothing could ever happen to you.

I know it's wrong to want people like that to end up experiencing the difficulty and miserable situations they think they're immune to because they're oh so smart and virtuous and special, but it's difficult not to.

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april_hurst
2006-09-29 09:56 am UTC (link)

Over the long term, it might be true that a person can eventually find work and food, and unemployment for years would be because of a personality defect... or because of a disability that they have no control over and doesn't make them any more likely to commit crimes. Disability payments aren't always easy to get, even with real problems, and they don't pay for much anyway. In the short term, unemployment and underemployment can just be bad luck, usually combined with the local job market being sucky

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	mookie 2006-09-29 02:59 pm UTC (link)
	For the love of money, the dollar sign goes before the amount. Sheesh! Seeing the dollar sign at the end drives me insane, too. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	benighted 2006-10-02 03:15 am UTC (link)
	Obviously the lower paying jobs are going to have more violent people in them, because there is a reason they "cant find any other job" and it has to do with the kind of person they are. what (Reply to this)(Parent)

	moonjaguar 2006-09-29 06:01 am UTC (link)
	There was this one kid who could barely speak English who came to my door soliciting some kind of Send an Inner City Kid to College donations thing. I gave him a Coke, a bottled water and a banana because it was 90 F and 90% humidity out and he looked parched. Plus he caught my cat for me too. (Reply to this)

(Anonymous)
2006-09-29 01:25 pm UTC (link)

Many years ago, my great aunt (RIP) took in a girl from North Dakota who was doing the magazine thing. I kinda had a crush on her. The girl had to work 12-hour days pounding the pavement and got paid jack shit in return. She eventually quit and went back home.

Also, one of my coworkers in Portland fell for this, got shipped to South Carolina or someplace, and needed a deprogrammer to get back to normal.

So, yeah, it is a cult, but not necessarily a scam from the buyer's perspective as you will get your magazines, it's just cheaper to subscribe directly.

--The Clichemoth(I wonder what happened to Ellie. I hope she's doing well.)

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	(Anonymous) 2006-10-03 06:51 am UTC (link)
	Sadly, the scam is true, and the abuse/exploitation of young teens is true (happened to my uncle's stepdaughter, much to our disbelief), but it all gets laughed off under "stupid people!" by people like jfreedan. And girls like my uncle's stepdaughter will never speak up. (Reply to this)