Is this a common house-casing technique ?

[customerserviceguy]

4. I accidentally came across a potential such scheme

while talking with a friend a couple of weeks ago. She mentioned that a woman came to the door, and said she had lived there as a child. I related the story of the seventy-something woman who came to our garage sale in the 1990's who said the same thing. In my case, the visitor related all kinds of stories about every room, but could I possibly verify them? Of course not.

Maybe men could not get away with this way of casing a place, but most of us seem to be more trusting of women.