It's a cold, late December night, probably in the 20s. Suddenly, there's a knock at the door. "No one ever knocks on my door at 8:30 at night," I say.
We open the door, and it's teenage girl with several piercings, holding a laminated piece of paper, shivering and basically looking pathetic.
"Hi, I've entered in this communications challenge where I have to knock on 100 doors. It's to help get rid of speaking-in-public phobia."
"You have a phobia of speaking in public?"
"No, it's just part of my marketing communications class. See, I'm trying to raise money for a scholarship."
Because it's so freaking cold, I invite her in (which, by the way, I wouldn't have if Mark weren't here with me).
And she hands me the laminated piece of paper that has the title "Double Points" on one side and "Triple Points" on the other, along with a list of magazines on each side. That's it. No sponsoring organization. Nothing other than the title and the magazine list.
"Oh, so you're selling magazines?"
"Well, not really. See, you don't have to buy anything."
"Isn't this a magazine subscription?"
"Well, yes, but you don't have to buy a magazine subscription; you can donate money. See, it's sponsored by Girl Scouts, but we're too old to sell cookies. So we're selling magazine subscriptions."
Uh-huh.
Her attempt at being funny and approachable.
"Oh, and this goes to my basketball scholarship."
Uh-huh. (By the way, she REEKS of cigarette smoke. I almost say, "Wow, it must be really hard to play basketball - and be good enough to get a basketball scholarship - smoking like you do." I resisted.)
"No, thank you," I say, and I lead her to the door.
She starts to cry. "This is my last door. They're picking me up in five minutes. This means I've lost. Now, there's no way I'll get my basketball scholarship."
Uh-huh.
She would have been so much more believable if she had thought through her scam and made it believable.
Problems:
- She changed her story several times. She should have picked one avenue and stuck with it.
- The data didn't match her story. No scholarship basketball player is going to smoke cigarettes, enough to reek. (Interesting subpoint - I was the only one who could tell - from my years of growing up with parents who smoked. I am extremely sensitive to cigarette smoke and can pick it up even in traffic from other cars.)
- Have better materials. The laminated magazine list was amateurish. If you're going to go to the trouble of creating scam materials to begin with, at least do them well.
- Too over the top. The tears at the end? Really? Give me a break.
So, to all scam artists out there... the more authentic you and your materials are, the better a chance you'll have of pulling off a successful scam.
Comments