Comments on: Political Street Scams?

By: Graciela

Graciela — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 19:46:53 +0000

I was wondering if it was a scam as well and your page came up when I googled info about it. A girl came to my door yesterday with the same speech asking for $110 for the DNC and she was really pushy, even after I said that I’d do it online because you can’t really trust people in this day. She then showed me the donation form as some kind of proof that it was legitimate. I told her that I’m a graphic designer and I could have easily designed it and gotten it printed too, so that I wasn’t impressed. Even with that she just kept pushing. Eventually I had to tell her to leave because I gave her enough of my time. I just thought it was weird that even after I said I’d donate online she kept pushing for a donation at the door. Maybe I’m too skeptical.

By: PT Varnum

PT Varnum — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 03:57:35 +0000

I gave $20. The next day I got a call from Darlington House thanking me for my donation.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 02:02:35 +0000

Obama has inspired a hell of a lot of volunteerism. I could completely see some well-meaning people going door to door to fundraise for Obama, in the same way that a bunch of people had bake sales for him on different corners last weekend. Since they clearly have nothing to do with the actual campaign, I would totally understand if they were poor at execution–but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s automatically a scam.

By: M.

M. — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 23:18:08 +0000

I used to have a neighbor who’d ask for money too – but at least he’d do some work for it. I knew that he was laid off, and wasn’t (as far as I could tell) a huge drug user, so I helped. He’d mow for 15 minutes, and I’d give him $20.

By: djdc

djdc — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 20:25:07 +0000

Anonymous 3:37 — you’re right! You just jogged my memory. I believe the woman at my door was with the DNC as well, probably the same person. Thanks for mentioning it.

By: Toby

Toby — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 20:13:32 +0000

I have a neighbor who routinely knocks on our door, begging for money. He has never paid a cent back. AND I LIE TO HIM. I say that my husband has been laid off, or that they’ve cut back on my hours or whatever. I know all he wants is to buy a beer or a blunt and that his family have stopped financing his bad habits. And I’m not contributing.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 19:37:46 +0000

The young woman who came to my door said she was collecting for the DNC, rather than a single candidate.

By: djdc

djdc — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 18:53:36 +0000

I wasn’t going to comment at all on this but will now. If the campaign itself is truly not here going door to door, they should know that there are people going around fundraising in Obama’s name. I had a nice young woman come to the door yesterday who I think claimed she was from the Obama campaign, and also wanted me to sign something and donate. She was very persistent and talked a mile a minute — mentioned how hanging chads stole the election last time, voter fraud in Ohio, etc. I really thought it was an odd way for a national campaign to raise funds…. so I pledged my vote and shooed her off the porch.

By: OFA

OFA — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 18:32:09 +0000

I work with the Obama campaign and we are not sendig anyone out to funraise door to door. In other states we are canavassing (identifying Obama supporters) but not at this time in DC.

Everyone should note there is a big grassroots organization in DC – “DC for Obama” that is not coordinating directly with the campaign but is sending volunteers to battle ground states (e.g. Virginia) and doing informal bake sale fundraising for their activities.

Moveon.org is also doing grassroots fundraising (bake sales, house parties, etc.) but it is pretty obvious if they’re legitimate.

By: JMS

JMS — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 18:04:25 +0000

This guy came to my house too, and was very pushy bordering on rude. It did seem suspicious, but I later called the DNC and talked to their local DC rep who told me they did in fact have people canvasing the Petworth area. Still doesn’t prove this guy wasn’t a scam artist, but makes me feel a little better. I let the DNC guy know that if it was one of his staff he needed to give him some coaching on how to interact with strangers when you’re asking for money.