Dorm residents affected by magazine scam

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Becky Getman just thought the two men standing in her doorway were students wanting to introduce themselves.

“We had just had a get to know everyone activity,” said Getman, a St. Louis sophomore. “I thought they were from my floor.”

They weren’t.

The two men reportedly went to Templin and Lewis Residence Halls Tuesday afternoon and evening attempting to sell magazine subscriptions to students. But according to a release from the KU Public Safety Office, the company the two men claimed to represent did not exist.

Getman and her roommates turned the men away. Other students didn’t.

About 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, two white males described as about 25-years-old reportedly arrived at Elise Longtry and Aryn Kamerer’s room on the fifth floor of Lewis Hall. Longtry and Kamerer bought a $40 subscription, each paying $20. They said the men gave them a receipt with the name Element Sales on it, a St. Joseph, Mo., address and a phone number.

Soon after they bought the subscription, Longtry and Kramer heard someone else tried to contact the phone number on the receipt, and it was a private number. Longtry and Kamerer went to the residence hall’s lobby and found the men who sold the magazines. They demanded a refund. The men obliged.

Longtry and Kamerer then called police and filed a non-criminal offense report. When an officer arrived, he called the number on the receipt and the man who answered said the number was for his mother’s cell phone, according to the report. The officer said the woman knew nothing about Element Sales. St. Joseph police said the address on the receipt wasn’t a “good” address, according to the report.

Two students in Templin Hall also filed reports with the KU Office of Public Safety. Getman didn’t file a report but said the men tried to sell her magazines. She described an experience similar to the one Longtry and Kamerer filed in their report. Getman also said the men told her that they were selling magazines to earn a trip to Europe. She said men tried to sell her magazines last year using the same story. Getman thought those men were involved in the same plan as the ones from Tuesday.

“They were the smooth-talking salesman type,” Getman said. “If you’re not used to it, it could be tough to turn them down.”

Signs in Templin and Lewis are stationed at the front desks warning students to report anything about people selling magazines. The Department of Student Housing prohibits soliciting in the residence halls. The KU Public Safety Office warned students that by signing up for these deals they could be giving the solicitor everything needed for identity theft.

— Edited by Elizabeth Cattell

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