Scams are an unfortunate part of life in Davis. On occasion, people try to take advantage of others by tricking them out their money. The following is a list of scams that have been reported in Davis:

2007-04-18: The Davis Chamber of Commerce has just been informed of a phone scam directed towards local businesses.

A Chamber Member was contacted by phone this morning to support the Davis High School Volleyball Team by placing an ad on the team's volleyball poster. This Member knew the Coach of the Team and was ready to sign on until they asked for pre-payment with a credit card. The Member said she wanted to contact the school first and the solicitor said they'd call back tomorrow. After calling the High School, the Member found out that there was not a poster for the High School Volleyball Team.

The Davis Police Department is actively investigating this issue. Please call them at 530-747-5400 if you have any information.

(Received in an email from the Chamber of Commerce)

2007-04-25: Davis Dating is most-likely a scam site.

2010-05-02: A young lady of short stature and blonde hair is running what is most likely a street scam. She lures people walking around downtown in with a sob story of being kicked out of her boyfriend's mother's house and she needs money to get a ticket to San Diego via Amtrak. She gave out the phone number: (707) 301-2275, it is most likely a fake.

This girl is also mentioned on the Con Artists page, and includes a photo. It may or may not be her, but its worth looking at.

2012-02-21: Some guy is apparently going door to door asking for people to contribute to a fundraiser to raise money for a hospital and states that he is from the UCDavis Lacrosse Team (also identified himself as 'Will'). The person that was contacted by this guy called the UCD Lacrosse Head Coach and asked about the fundraiser, to which the coach responded that they were not running any fundraisers nor did they have any players named Will this year. You can find more information on the UCD Men's Lacrosse Team Facebook page or their website. They are instructing anyone contacted by these people to ask for their information and send it over to the lacrosse team.

Comments:

You must be logged in to comment on this page. Please log in.

2010-05-02: I ran into this young lady with my girlfriend. I distinctly heard her say "why does this street suck so much?" on the phone. She quickly hung up, gathered herself and presented her tall tale to us. I was suspicious and pressed for more information for two minutes. My girlfriend was about to give her money, so I told her to go get picked up by her "friends" (who couldn't help her get a ticket). We told her to meet us at Amtrak in 20 minutes, giving me "time to get cash for her". Bull, she never showed. A similar thing happened to two freinds of mine, who gave her $5 and she disappeared. —Scones

2012-04-17 13:23:47   There are these scammers in town, they hit my rental house last year. They're back! They claim to be fundraising for a trip to (insert location here, last year it was Cabo... this year it's Germany apparently? Who would want to go to Germany?) and want you to order magazines from them. They all seem to be tweakers of some sort, kinda hyperactive and all that I have seen have been heavy smokers by the smell. They talk about public speaking project, boys vs girls, etc. The girl from last year (there was a guy too but I didn't bother) asked to come in, talked us up. We trolled her for a bit, gave her false information and eventually a check which we cancelled immediately after. No one ever contacted us back and some research into the business name they gave us yielded several other reports of scamming on a national level. Seems that they travel town to town collecting checks, some of which are reported to never have been taken out according to some of the suckers. Others have said the payment was taken but the magazines ordered were never received. Overall it's shady. Beware for the next couple days at least. Currently they are going around East Davis, we'll see how long they stick. —KBathory

2012-06-19 12:43:40   Several companies around town do multi-level marketing similar to scams and attempt to get students to join. —N'chlsKZ

2015-05-20 13:51:57   Going off of what KBathory said, these scammers are back in Davis. They've been going around to apartments, pulling the same ole' heist. This time they're going under the company name of "PSS Mags". Their website is supposedly this POS website called www.pssmags.com. Basically they will come to your door and try and sell you some story about "boys vs girls". It's a very poor story with a lot of holes. They never say what they get if they win or lose, just that the money they earn helps them go on a trip to . For me she said she was working for a trip to Italy. Anyways, they'll try and charge you an insanely expensive price for a magazine subscription that you won't even get for 120 days. It's about $58 per subscription, and they'll try and get you to buy more no matter how poor you say you are. If you're a member of the opposite sex they will try and flirt with you for more money. They always prefer cash, although they will take a check if you insist. I don't know if they ever actually cash the checks, or just take what cash they get. They give you a receipt and on it it says to mail in to cancel within 3 business days. Don't even bother with this. Just call the bank, give them the check number, amount given, to who it was written, etc. If you give them cash you're pretty much screwed. If you gave them a check, don't worry. If they haven't cashed it yet you can cancel it easily. I don't think that they're out to steal your identity or anything. They seem more like tweakers looking for a fix. Either way, just say no or don't answer the door. They move really fast, too. If you don't answer within 20-30 seconds they'll leave. BEWARE —JamesSidis

Add tags