Years ago when I lived in Western Maryland, one day a woman came to my door and said, I'm with a group of young people trying to raise funds to help impoverished teenagers. We're selling magazines. Will you buy some?
No, I said, and called the police and my closest neighbor. We had an unofficial neighborhood watch. If something unusual happened or if strangers came to our area, we let each other know.
That evening when the neighbor's husband came home from work, he called the police again because he saw eight to ten of the magazine sellers gathered on our corner. The police said they couldn't do anything about it: the fundraisers weren't doing anything wrong and they had a right to be there.
The next morning when we had our morning get together at the school-bus stop, I asked the obvious questions: How could these people sell magazines without order forms, no list of available magazines, and not so much as a pen?
Something was up.
I finally learned they were a mag crew a couple of months ago when I watched the movie American Honey (2016, Rated R, Available On DVD).
Star (Sasha Lane in her film debut) takes off from a home that isn't much of a home only to end up with a traveling magazine-sales crew. They spend their days selling magazines or engaging in illegal activities to bring in money because at the end of the week, the two lowest earners have to fight each other. Any member of the group can be attacked or left behind at any time.
American Honey is a long movie at two hours and forty-three minutes. I doubt if you'll want to invest that much time in such a movie, but it gave me some insight into the lives of these drifters.
Then I did some research into mag crews. They usually spend a day in a pricey neighborhood pitching a fake fundraiser. Unlike the mag crew I encountered, they tend to have a list of overpriced magazines that you will not receive if you place an order. Most of the money goes to the leader of the crew. The salespeople are supposed to receive a daily stipend, which they often don't get.
One mag crew salesperson said she'd been left behind with nothing three times, yet she always joined another mag crew.
In American Honey, the mag crew is similar to a dysfunctional family. If extreme dysfunction and poverty is all that the young people have ever known, then they gravitate toward it.
We all want to go home.
Has a mag crew ever worked your neighborhood?
Infinities of love,
Janie Junebug
No. Never heard of them. So sad. But I wouldn't give them any money. Would never order anything from door to door people. We rarely ever actually even get girl scouts here selling cookies. They sell them to people they know or at work, etc. I don't think I'd want to watch that one. I just watched God Bless The Child and that was sad enough.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I've heard about God Bless The Child. I've seen enough sad movies this year.
DeleteI wasn't familiar with this scam!!
ReplyDeleteThen they haven't hit your neighborhood, which is good.
DeleteI've never heard of a mag crew before but I never buy anything from someone that knocks at my front door. In fact I don't answer the door!
ReplyDeleteI seldom go to my door now. The dogs bark at the window and chase people away.
DeleteYou were enlightened years later. I enjoyed reading. Thank you. Love love, Andrew. Bye.
ReplyDeleteAnd I was enlightened by a movie.
DeleteGood lord. We have fake fundraisers from time to time but they seem to be individuals operating personal scams, not organized mag crews, which I have not heard of before, at least not in Canada.
ReplyDeleteYou don't have mag crews because Canadians are too nice to do such a thing.
DeleteOoog. Thanks for the heads-up; I really had no idea of these groups. Fortunately we now live on a dead-end street off of a dead-end street at the top of a ruinously high hill. Most give up long before they get to our house.
ReplyDeleteWhen I lived in the country in the middle of an orchard, no one came to my door. I liked it, except that I felt isolated.
DeleteYes, I've seen magazine crews, probably since the seventies, when I first owned a home. Somehow, I knew about them, and always turned them away. It's sad, how many ways there are for the unscrupulous to pimp people who are down in life.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know they'd been around that long. It's a horrible way to live and a horrible way to try to "earn" a living.
DeleteI wouldn't have thought to ring the cops but I would have said a firm no not interested because I am not callable which sounds better then saying I trust no one and always question things like that.
ReplyDeleteI called the police because in that neighborhood we rarely saw strangers.
DeleteI have had countless knocks on my door with these groups. They actually kind of frighten me as usually a polite "no thank you" doesn't dissuade them.
ReplyDeleteFor the most part, I now never answer my door if I am not expecting someone or sneak a peek out of a side window to see who it is. We are considering getting a security camera installed on the front door so I can just look at my cell phone to see whose there. It sucks to be paranoid but I have had a couple get really confrontational.
You're not paranoid. You're safety conscious.
DeleteI don't recall seeing these folks on our street.
ReplyDeleteGood!
DeleteInteresting. Yes we get them now and then. I never order from them and they are nice until you say you are not interested. Our city wants us to ask for an ID - most of them don't have it.
ReplyDeleteAsking for an ID is good. I'm not surprised they don't have them.
DeleteI have never heard of this but I am not surprised. The shame is that people fall for this and don't even think twice that they are being scammed. The biggest hit are the seniors I think
ReplyDeleteSeniors seem to get scammed a lot.
DeleteNever heard of this. Creepy!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that many people said they've never seen mag crews. I've never seen them in my current neighborhood.
DeleteYes, I learned this lesson the hard way. It didn't cost me that much, just a phone call to cancel my credit card. I've fallen for a number of scams. I'm an easy mark. But oh well. They needed the money more than I did at the time, and at least they didn't just rob me with violence or threat thereof. "We all want to go home."
ReplyDeleteYou did what you thought was right at the time.
DeleteI've never heard of mag crews. That is interesting! Scammers have gone through whatever neighbourhood I've ever lived in but they hardly ever get to us. Because a lot of times we don't open the door to people we don't know. That's the introvert in us :)
ReplyDeleteI think not opening the door to strangers is wise.
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