BOISE -- A group of would-be scammers hit a southwest Boise neighborhood Wednesday, using a variety of excuses to try to get into people's homes.
People in the area of South Five Mile Road and West Victory Road reported a couple different people using different ploys to get invited inside.
Last night when I was coming home from work, I noticed about three houses away there was a young man walking down the street going door-to-door, and sure enough when I got home about 10 minutes later, he knocked on my door, said Paul Shephard, who lives in the area.
He was clean-cut, had a logo-ed shirt on and before he said anything I said, 'Are you credited by the Better Business Bureau?' and he looked at me, and he was puzzled and he just turned and walked down my driveway.
The individual picked the wrong door -- Paul Shephard works for the BBB.
It's concerning because people are trying to get into people's homes, said Shephard. They're just trying to find out what available, what's available for them.
A few streets down, someone rang Chris Brown's doorbell with a strange story.
The doorbell rings, I open the door, there's a young man there and I say 'What's up?' and he says, 'Well I'm from animal control, and there's a tiger loose in the neighborhood,' said Brown. He had a nice looking identity card that was laminated and all that. So I said, 'Oh really?' and he said, 'Yea your neighbors say it's in your back yard, and I've gotta check it out' and I said, 'Really? Get out of here' and he said, 'Oh well our trucks are in the area, and actually what we're doing is we're checking cable and satellite TV, and I'm here to check yours.'
Brown said he asked the person to leave again, and the man ran off, but heard the man visited several other neighbors.
He is just worried they might try to take advantage of someone elderly in their usually quiet neighborhood.
Boise Police say you should ask any door-to-door salesman for their solicitor's license from the city, and if you see anything that you feel is suspicious, call 911 immediately. The BBB says this might be a group of scammers who are new to the area. If you see them, try to get a look at their car and license plates.
