At the end of the year, unscrupulous touts are trying to sell fake calendars, and are taking the opportunity to steal from you. Here’s how to recognize them.
It’s a tradition that no one misses at the end of the year. The sale of calendars is the perfect opportunity to support the professionals who help us on a daily basis, while remaining practical for organizing appointments for the year to come. Whether they are postmen, firefighters or garbage collectors, these professionals ring our doors with a smile and kindness, offering calendars with photos of landscapes, firefighters themselves, little kittens or other cute animals. In exchange, you give what you want: a note or a few coins. A completely honorable good deed… Except that more and more people are being robbed every year.
In fact, fake marketers have developed a strategy called the “calendar scam”. It is currently prevalent in certain regions of France. In Aveyron, for example, ten cases have already been reported to the gendarmerie. On their Facebook page, the gendarmes warn residents about “fake public service agents or false ERDF agents” Who “once inside, are likely, through trickery or taking advantage of moments of inattention, to steal money or valuable goods from you.” But then, who can you trust to buy a calendar?
A sale regulated according to professions
Only a few professionals are allowed to go door to door to sell their calendars. Among them, there are postal workers who do it outside of their working hours and on their own initiative. And most often, the building concierge is aware of their arrival. If you have any doubts about the person coming to your home, you can ask them for their professional card.
Second profession: firefighters, subject to authorization from the prefecture. The latter must be in uniform with their badge and present their membership card to the French fire brigade network when they sell their calendars. The National Federation of French Firefighters also indicates on its website that “the distribution of firefighter calendars remains a donation, a liberal intention, without any obligation to purchase.” Furthermore, they systematically provide a receipt in exchange for a donation.
Finally, depending on the municipality, garbage collectors are also authorized to make this type of sale to individuals. If you are hesitant, you can contact your town hall to find out which professionals can carry out canvassing. As a general rule, the official logo of the institution must be present on the calendar. Another clue that should alert you in the event of a scam.