DNC "grass roots" canvasser or scammer?

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

I had a young woman come by my door (near the Cedar Street end of the bike path) claiming to be collecting for the DNC. She claimed that she was collecting for the "grass roots" effort, and that the only way to contribute to this effort was to give to a door-to-door person (specifically, that donations to the democrats.org web site would not go to this worthy cause). I didn't give her anything, and upon reflection that bit about only giving to her seemed iffy. Anyone know how to verify whether she is legit, or what to do if she's not? I'd hate for my neighbors to get scammed.

Edit: seems like it's legit, just kind of wierd.

Comments

[hauntmeister.livejournal.com]

Humm. I had a young woman come to my door a couple months ago, claiming to be locked out and needing thirty dollars for the locksmith. But she suddenly remembered a friend down the street when I volunteered to call the police to let her in.

I wonder if it's the same woman with a different spiel now...

[georgehitler.livejournal.com]

That's a time honoured classic. There were some crackhead/scammers who would lose track of who they had tried it on, and came to our door with the same story more than once back home. Thirty dollars, that's ambitious!

[hauntmeister.livejournal.com]

Having dealt with locksmiths, I knew her story couldn't be true.

1) Locksmiths will wait for payment until after they let you in.
2) They cost a lot more than $30!

[hedy.livejournal.com]

there's a grassroots group that does that for the dnc, yes.
so, yes, prob legit.

[georgy.livejournal.com]

If this person were really representing the DNC, and someone said "Well, hmm, I support you and all, but I feel funny about handing cash to a stranger," the person would totally refer said person to democrats.org, in the name of the greater cause. Door-to-door solicitation (without, one would infer, any paperwork or identifying credentials) sounds super-sketchy.

[hedy.livejournal.com]

::shrug::
I just know there is a dorr-to-door canvassing dnc thhing. Maybe POTENTIALLY legit would have been better put.

[metahara.livejournal.com]

can u direct me to more info about the ligit group and how to identify the legit?

[sissychrissy1.livejournal.com]

It was probably one of these (http://www.grassrootscampaigns.com/GCIDNC.html) people. My roommate interviewed with them and it was sort of weird the way it all worked (not sketchy necessarily, just sort of roundabout). Anyway, chances are that they were legit but maybe inexperienced or not well trained. Either way though, if you felt uncomfortable, it's better to give directly anyway.

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

She did have a DNC tag and some photocopies on a clipboard, so she was either legit or well-prepared. If there is a door-to-door effort in Mass, then she was probably legit. She did say she accepted credit cards and checks, so it's not like she just showed up asking for cash only.

[forgotten-aria.livejournal.com]

I got a guy doing this, so if it is a scam, it's not just one person. They had nice shirts printed too, which of course doesn't mean anything.

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but that makes me think it's probably legit. Who'd go to that much trouble?

[wildflowersoul.livejournal.com]

I had a guy come to my door (off of Broadway, so they were definitely in the neighborhood) for this today. I think the reason your young woman was being sketchy is that they only get paid if they meet a quota. I asked him if the quota was by number of people donating, and he said it was actually by amount of money raised. I'm still not about to give my credit card number to strangers knocking on my door.

[frederic.livejournal.com]

I had two people in Central Square on Monday or Tuesday asking for donations to help Kerry. They seemed to be befuddled that I didn't support Kerry, when in fact it was that I wouldn't give money to street solicitors... If they wanted to be successful in their fundraising (legit or not), they should take lessons from the MassPIRG people for grabbing people's attention whether they're interested in it or not.

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

I'm very happy that they're not as aggressive as the MassPIRG people, actually.

[anotherjen.livejournal.com]

I'm in the same neighborhood and I gave a smallish check to a couple of DNC canvassers. They actually said they preferred checks to cash. I made it out to DNC. Seems legit to me.

[yangelina.livejournal.com]

just move near davis in july and we've already had about 4-5 door-to-door fund raisers come by. it's becoming irritating. we told the last guy (said he was raising money for kerry) that we just can't give money to everyone that comes around our door, that we don't have unlimited funds, that we don't support kerry anyway, and his reply was "yea, but he's better than bush."
that's not a good way to raise money, in my opinion.
i think they're legit, but i'm a fairly private person about certain things, and coming to my house asking for my money just makes me want to slam the door in their faces. i agree with others here; when in doubt, say no.

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

In the past I did a lot of door-to-door solicitation. My advice would be to put a "no solicitor" sign on your door. Any legit solicitor will see that sign and respect it.

[danger-chick.livejournal.com]

I generally don't answer the door unless I am expecting a friend to stop by.

[denonymous.livejournal.com]

Call me ignorant, but wasn't the DNC last week?

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

That was the Democratic National Convention. She was collecting for the Democratic National Committee.

[denonymous.livejournal.com]

Ha! Ignorant it is. :)

[siderea]

There were some DNC fundraising folks with clip boards right in the square by the plaza by the Starbucks about 3 weeks ago. I asked for ID, and the fellow regretfully said the DNC hadn't given them any sort of IDs. I said, "No, that's fine; just show me a personal ID." He whipped out his driver's license, and I took down his name and driver's license number; I gave him a check. Just recently, I received a love letter from John Kerry's computer asking if there was any more where that came from, so I guess it got where it was supposed to. :}

[metahara.livejournal.com]

good to hear- thanx