Don’t believe for a minute that the day of the flim-flam man is gone. Hucksterism is alive and thriving, right here in slick city. We submit here as evidence a few cases pulled from the bulging files of the Dallas Better Business Bureau, which in the past year, has received more than 7,000 written complaints from irate consumers who’ve been bamboozled.
● A woman sent $ 1 to a Dallas address for a “copper engraving of President Lincoln.”In return, she received a penny.
● A Dallas-based firm called”Worldco International” solicited a number of local investors, at $5,000 a head, tobuy into a distributorship thatsold “self-watering flowerpots.” After investors put upthe cash, Worldco International quietly pulled up rootsand skipped town.
The Great American Music Corporation, headquartered in Dallas, advertised analbum entitled “The King ofRock and Roll.” featuring Elvis Presley’s greatest hits. Hundreds of fans, from Dallas to New York, sent in their money. And they got back a record album that did indeed feature Elvis’ hit songs. But not Elvis singing them.
● Several young Dallasiteswere wowed by an ad promising “up to $30,000 a week”for stuffing envelopes. So eachstuffed an envelope with the$375 application fee (moneyorders only) and mailed it tothe “American Teenagers Society Club Organization.” Inreturn, they received nothing.
● An entrepreneur namedWeldon Clay, 59, stung businessmen in Dallas (and tenother Texas counties) for thousands of dollars with his littlescheme. He arranged to arrivewhen the company’s boss wasabsent, told the employee incharge that his boss had ordered several jugs of his ” Wipe-A-Way” cleaner C.O.D., collected $ 10 a jug, and departed.His “miracle cleaner” wascolored water in relabeled DrPepper syrup jugs.
● An East Dallas womansent off for a “guaranteedroach killer,” offered by acompany with a Dallas postoffice box. Weeks later, shereceived two wooden block labeled “A” and “B.” The enclosed instructions read: “Corner roach with Block A. smash roach with Block B. If this doesn’t work, repeat instructions.”
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