I had a kid come by working on a “communications project” selling magazine subscriptions for “points.” I’ve had these guys come by fairly often over the years (they seem to be everywhere–no matter where I live they come by at least once a year) and I know from prior research that this is a scam.
Problem is, I’ve read some webpages that say that, at least sometimes, the kids themselves are basically kidnapping victims.
How often, if ever, is that true? Did I need to be more proactive about trying to find out about this kid’s situation?
Or is the stuff I’m reading exaggerated or fictional?
They had an expert on human trafficking on. He said, they could be legit, but they could also be forced labor and it’s far more common than you expect.
My sister ran away from home as a teen and joined one of these “teams”. First they promised her lots of money, nice hotel rooms, yummy food, and then quickly she went to living off 8 dollars a day and being locked into a hotel room with lots of other kids every night. It was hard for her to get out of it too. It seemed like to me kind of a hooker/pimp type situation. Bad news!!
I’ve seen articles about this in the paper. Some kids are there willingly, but some aren’t. They are always lying, and usually don’t have a peddler’s license. At the very least, don’t buy anything from them. An informative call to the cops might be in order.