Watch out for these new scams: the catalogue and the aerosol spray

We have told you about the mercury and the fake police officer, the water and the gold in the fridge, the sick child and Medjugorje.

However, the list of scams gets longer by the day, as the scammers invent new methods.

And we have to report another two scamming systems, one “mechanical”, namely a piece of paper that looks like a simple delivery note, which is, in fact, a supply contract, and the other that is purely emotional.

What would you do, for example, if somebody rang your bell at 1:30 a.m., claiming to be a new neighbour looking for an aerosol spray to administer medication to a relative.

This is what happened to one reader in Gallarate, who reported what happened the other night at her home in the Madonna in Campagna district, on the VareseNews Facebook page.

Someone rang her doorbell in the middle of night. “And it was a woman, with black hair, about 1.60 m tall, who asked us if we could lend her an aerosol spray, because her husband needed to take his medication.”

Now, it is possible that in a moment of distraction, when you have just been woken up, you start thinking not so much about how strange the situation is, but where on earth you put the aerosol spray, maybe years ago, when your child had tracheitis. And as your neurons are gradually waking up, the unexpected neighbour starts to make an inventory of the inside of your house.

However, the reader smelled a rat. “You’re a scam artist, watch out, I’ve already called the police.”

And the other case, which was recently reported, of signing a fake delivery note for a free sample of house-cleaning products, which was, in fact, an extremely expensive contract for a six-monthly supply of soap. Read below.

I’m writing to your editorial office to inform you, and your readers, in particular, about the “catalogue scam”, which my mother was involved in, so that no one else is deceived.

On 10/10/2018, my mother received a phone call from a woman from customer services, who was trying to promote a new type of organic soap, who asked her to take part in a market survey.

The call centre woman asked my mother to set an appointment, at our address, for the delivery of the product, without saying anything about contracts, catalogues, etc.

On the day of the appointment, a collaborator of the company showed up at our house, one hour late; my mother, who was on her way to another appointment, met him outside, under the rain. At that point, the mysterious collaborator gave her the free sample and a catalogue, and made her sign a sheet of paper (which looked like a carbon copy receipt), which he said was “a simple receipt for the delivery of the free sample”.

After a month, the call centre phoned again to set another appointment, this time to fill in a questionnaire about the quality of the free soap sample; the appointment was set for 8/11/2018.

The same collaborator showed up again for the appointment, without any questionnaire, but asked my mother which product she had chosen to buy from the catalogue. My mother, who was not interested in purchasing any product, she hadn’t even looked at the catalogue, said she wasn’t going to purchase anything.

It was then that the scam was discovered: the collaborator told my mother that she had signed a contract to purchase household and furnishing products, every six months, for three years, for the sum of €2990+VAT per purchase.

What had initially been presented as a “simple delivery note for a free sample” was actually a contract, which my mother had unwittingly signed, while hurrying to another appointment under the rain.

Of course, she would never have signed that piece of paper (which looked like a simple receipt) had she known it was a contract.

Of course, the scam was reported to the Carabinieri, and the customer protection associations were informed, as, with a quick search on the Internet, you can find thousands of similar scams.

Please publish this letter to inform your readers, so that they are on their guard against new scams by the same company.

The story continues, of course. For this reason, take note of this number: 112. And when something does not seem right, call it. It is free, and may help you save a lot of money.