Does This Seem Suspicious To You?

[THUNDER HANDS]

I was just out at lunch. After stopping off at Burger King, I exited the establishment and went and read the NY Times in my car while I had a cigarette.

This guy comes up to me and asks me for directions. I tell him, then he says "You look familiar."

And I'm like, 'mmm, okay' because I had never seen the guy before in my life.

Turns out the guy just moved to my town from Queens. We chat for a while and he tells me he owns his own business (something in marketing, I believe, he wasn't too specific). Then he says "you know, we're always looking for good people" and gives me his business card.

I gave him my name and cell phone # and he said he'd call in a day or two.

Now, my question is - is stuff like this suspicious? I've been propositioned for jobs before from complete strangers. I never thought much of it (they usually come into the store I was working in) but this time it's different.

He came up to me in a Burger King parking lot. Either this guy is a really nice guy who's on the level and is really looking for quality new people to work for him - or he's a shady cold-caller who's looking for as many live bodies as he can find.

What do you think? Have you ever had anything like this happen to you before?

[CO Liberal]

1. Sounds Like an Amway Distributor to Me

:-)

[Bertha Venation]

15. LOL

Picture it: dinner date w/ former fiancé, about seven years after we split. I've changed radically, and see it as a way to apologize for hurting him when I broke it off, come out to him, make friends. He's not too chatty and doesn't seem like he's even interested in being there.

We get to dessert and he gets this earnest look on his face and asks, "What are your aspirations for the next five years?"

Turns out he's become an Amway salesman, and he's made a special trip from Idaho to see his So. California college pals as a way to drum up, uh, associates.

It was all I could do not to pour my coffee in his lap. Then he asked for separate checks.

[VelmaD]

2. First off...

shame on you for eating at Burger King. It's bad for you and they give a ton of money to the repubs.

Ok, now that I'm done berating you. I'm thinking it's a scam. But then I'm kinda paranoid. :shrug:

[Red_Storm]

17. Burger King gives money to the Republicans ?

[Maddy McCall]

3. A job offer by a stranger in a fast food parking lot. Hmmmmm...

Of the two choices you listed, the latter.

[Richardo]

4. I'd have held off giving him MY name and number...

...until I checked out the info on HIS card. But that's just me - a cynical, bitter, twisted curmudgeon. ;-)

[jmm]

5. I'd be suspicious.

I've had strangers approach me about jobs before but only twice do I think they were serious offers for "good" jobs.

[fallow]

6. And you gave him your number?

Hard to believe he needed directions, even harder to believe he is recruiting labor in a BK parking lot. And I dont know of even the most desparate salesman or marketer that would reap ph numbers one at a time. Id watch your cell phone bill.

[Rabrrrrrr]

7. If he's a salesman,

that's what salesman do - they annoy people, and approach strangers with total abandon and offer their business cards.

And if he's in a pyramid scheme kind of thing, like Amway, then all the more incentive he has to get more bodies, and you can bet that almost everyeone he encounters ends up with a business card from him.

I wouldn't worry. And no, I don't think it's suspicious. I get business cards on the subway, in stores, all over the place from gung ho go-getting salespeople and pyramid scheme people.

[Speck Tater]

8. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Sounds more like someone who is looking for a way to put his hands on your money.

[kmla]

Run away. Screaming. Fast. In the opposite direction.

Could be a regular guy, looking for people to help him run his business. But then again, he could be...

- nuts.
- a con man. In a couple of days, while you are interviewing with him, his friend is at your place, stealing your stereo.
- nuts.
- a private investigator.
- nuts.
- a Ponzi scheme salesman.
- nuts.

I've never met you. I read and enjoy your posts, and I assume you are a good guy. But anyone who can talk to you for a few seconds in a BK parking lot and tell that you are "good people" usually is only trying to get something from you.

I would have serious reservations interviewing with this guy. Too creepy.

(Edited for stoopid spellin')

[Aristus]

9. Amway guys are evil.

I can't count how many times back when I was trapped in the retail jungle that they "hit" on me. I'd be helping out what was ostensibly just another customer, offering incredible customer service like the hell of a guy I am. Then they'd start the pitch: "You seem like a great, go-get-'em guy. I'd like to sit down with you and run some numbers by you."

The pitch was always the same. I hated it.

I was desperate for a way out of the service gulag, and they come along with that Amway sh*t.

[geniph]

10. Definitely sounds like a pyramid scheme deal

Amway or one of their clones. Who else hires people that way?

[LynneSin]

11. What is suspicious is eating at a Burger King

bleak

[truthspeaker]

12. You gave your name and cell phone number to a stranger?!

You are FAR too trusting.

[amazona]

13. are you cute?

When I've had this happen, the man is not looking to give me a job, he is looking for sex.

"Haven't we met before?" is a pretty well-known come-on line, or at least it used to be.

There is probably no job or just a token job like answering a telephone. The guy just wanted to get your number.

[THUNDER HANDS]

14. he said he was married

And just moved to Long Island with his wife.

on edit - yes, I am cute. :D

[TreasonousBastard]

16. Amway!

I think it's in their training. Suck up to strangers and offer them big bucks. Never, ever, tell them what the job is until they're hooked. I got suckered that way years ago. Took two months to get the guy off my back.

If not Amway, one of their MLM imitators. A "friend" of mine once invited me to a job "interview" that was an MLM sales pitch. I pissed off the guy giving the pitch by asking "You're giving out 45% in total commissions with that upline-- why not just give the salesman the 45%?"

[Robb]

18. I think you all are too suspicious

If I remember it right, Lee Iacocca was sitting in a Sonic drive-in, when a man with a big white panel van drove up and offered him a leadership position in GM.

...Or maybe he made a human skin suit out of Iacocca? I'm getting older, so I might not have all the details right, but I'm sure of something.

I'm thirsty.