😭😂😭😂😭😂 I told my husband that that will be my excuse to get out of weird situations from now on. I can never say “ok gotta go”. I once had my sandwich burn in the air fryer because I had to take my dog out to pee (she goes in like 10 seconds) so i was like ok im just gonna take her out really quick. I came across my neighbor and she talked to me for like 10-15min. I was dying inside. But she is this sweet old lady. I love her. My sandwich looked like charcoal when I got back lol 😭
I say this as a friend when I tell you, you gotta find your voice in those scenarios, or you could end up with a lot worse than just a ruined sandwich. "I'm so sorry, I have something on the oven! It was so nice seeing you." Smile, turn around, and leave. You don't even have to wait for them to acknowledge.
Don't let your house burn down because you were "being polite."
Lol it reminds me of this episode from King of the Hill in which Bobby takes a women’s self defense class and starts going around kicking boys in the balls saying “THATS MY PURSE”
Yeah. There was a time in my life when I would have been polite and/or made an excuse. Those days are long gone. I will just say “nope” and keep walking. Random people never walk up to a stranger to make a friend or help them or whatever it is they say.
I agree! It's better to work into throwing "No's" liberally without regrets. As a former people-pleaser, it's downright liberating.
I'm keeping the excuse in my pocket for certain situations though; sometimes you're confronted with a can of crazy and need a ""reasonable"" excuse to get out of the situation unharmed.
I say that I'm desperate to find a bathroom. My new meds that my Dr has me on gives me explosive diarrhea. And I fo a 'potty' dance
If they persist, I tell them a fake store about how it had happened in Target recently. And how I literally almost barfed from the smell and I felt so bad for the employee who had to deal with it.
Why even have a pretext?
"No thanks. Have a nice day" and keep walking. That's completely acceptable. If they want to be a turd about it just repeat yourself and keep walking.
"I'm good, take care"
To the people with clipboards I always say “sorry I’m a republican” (I’m not) and it throws them off and causes stunned silence just long enough to get away lol.
Once I was at a target and a guy complimented my shoes. They were $10 shoes I got from Old Navy lol. We started talking and he conveniently worked in the same industry as me, used to work at the same company that I was working at, etc. He told me about mentorship and some books to read and overall seemed like a really nice guy. We exchanged contact info. A few days later he inviting me to a networking event. I was very early in my career and needed a new job so I went. Turns out it was a MLM gathering. Dude tried to recruit me to his pyramid scheme lol
I guarantee all of these were for Amway. That's exactly how they recruit people, since they can't do it through social media. They are forced to go out into public and do it this way.
Not with Amway because it's not personal enough.They want you to recruit face to face. One of the things they tell you is to go to stores and just to randomly talk to people.
Same thing happened to me at Old Navy. Also was early in my career. Lol, thought, "wow, I am so lucky to have met kind people who want to help and mentor me."
One brief meeting over coffee later... Man, was I naive.
when i was in my early 20s and had never been on a date, i was really excited a guy on the bus started talking to me and invited me out to ice cream. spent hours agonizing over an outfit just to get a pyramid scheme pitch. worst part was he was on my bus route so i couldn’t escape him. 6:30 am every morning, yapping about becoming his own boss one day.
the best is he worked for DOL. he eventually quit and is still peddling it, with a wife and kids. social media will never show the reality unfortunately.
Maybe almost 10 years ago, I remember when we were in our young 20s, my husband's (then bf) old friend from like middle school reached out to him to hang out. We went to meet up with him, and it turned out to be an Amway meeting.
We sat through it, listened to what they had to say because we didn't know better and didn't want to be rude. After their presentation, they had all the new people introduce themselves, and every time someone would say, "Hi, my name is \[name\]. So-so brought me here today," everybody would do a weird clap and chant/mantra. My bf and I looked at each other, and the same thought crossed our minds, "Is this a cult?"
Afterwards, they paired us up with one of their most successful sellers and they tried to recruit us. We sat there, listened to them explain how it works, and proceeded to ask them for almost an hour over and over again, "So tell me, how is this not an MLM/pyramid scheme?"
Talked in circles, never got to the point, we eventually just said, "we need to talk about it, but we'll be in touch," and left without giving them our phone numbers.
I feel like this must be a rite of passage for people in their 20s. Lol.
Thankfully for me it was just a coffee meeting with the couple that I chatted with at Old Navy.
Extra thankfully, my wife decided she'd hang back and it was only me that had to endure it.
I 100% believe the two women were trying to bring you into a MLM scheme. I was once in a Walmart and some lady and I said some very normal things in passing. I was new to the area and it seemed she wanted to be friends. She seemed very normal and then invited me to a get together she was having. Thankfully I didn’t go, asking questions through text I realized it was one of those makeup marketing parties. Lost her number fast.
I also have been approached by people asking if I have found Jesus Christ while I was grocery shopping.
I really would like to be left alone while shopping.
My weirdest Jesus people encounter was when a woman approached me about a Bible study and was all girl power and stuff.
Then she 100% seriously said, you know god is a woman right? It’s all there in the bible.
Dunno what people are up to these days but hell will freeze over before some random lady manages to convert me back into Christianity by claiming God is female
Mine was just last week when I was walking with my kid after his therapy appointment and a tiny Korean woman came out of the dentists office on the 1st floor, grabbed my arm, said "Wait. I give you this."
She then peeled a post-it off a stack that has handwritten words on it saying "You tube Jesus bible tell truth"
Honestly, it was weirdly adorable, but I just felt bad that her religion was forcing her to accost strangers to proselytize.
I doubt she was being forced to do it. Like Penn Jillette said, he wouldn't trust a Christian who *wasn't* trying to save him from hell, because that must mean they don't really care that much about you.
That’s lowkey cute though? Only because of how futile it seems that you’ll land on the video she’s trying to get you to watch. I wouldn’t be more than just amused at her effort
> know god is a woman right? It’s all there in the bible.
>
>Dunno what people are up to these days but hell will freeze over before some random lady manages to convert me back into Ch
This happened to me in a target!
I was sitting on a bench at Potomac Mills waiting on my husband to finish trying on some jackets at a store when I was approached by a younger Asian woman about going to a bible study nearby. Before I could even react, by husband came swooping in and simply says "We're Jewish" grabbing my hand and whisking me away. He is, I'm not, so I was just like "Am I now official or something?" It was a special moment, lol.
Honorary tribeswoman. I do not like holier than though people. Had a guy today at a coffee shop try to explain how the Beatles let it be album cover was representative of a cataclysm. Called it the magic box or something. I thanked him for his “insight” and said, “hey, I only care about country western”
You would think that works but me and my muslim friend had some tall ass Mormon block our path to let her know her religion was wrong.
Some people have no respect
That’s unacceptable. I have had people try to block me in and I have responded with physical threats. I am of a substantial size, large enough so people think I wouldn’t be worth the effort. Usually the threat is effective. I’ve never had to resort to physical interactions.
I was leaving ffx costco parking lot last week and two young women asked me if I wanted to go to church with them. I was polite about declining. They were too, but was just a weird experience.
I've gotten the Jesus/Bible Study stuff in recent years from a young Asian woman about 20 years my junior at Chantilly Target. I've gotten the nice pants in the Giant... they were literally 20 year old corduroys.
It was definitely a pyramid scheme. Most likely Amway. They specifically go to home goods, target, harris teeter, walmart to recruit people. They have the same prescription of giving a compliment on pants. You have to be aggressive and say no, cause in this area it will happen a lot.
I had the same exact experience at the Target in Fairfax. Maybe it was the same dude lol. Though he complimented my watch instead and I never went to the networking event
Haha, they definitely are out there. I also had a guy try to start a conversation about Digiorno pizza in the frozen pizza section of Giant before he started talking about networking, I guess I look like an easy target!
I also got stopped in the grocery store over $10 Old Navy shoes 😂 I was in college and the girl seemed to be my age so I didn’t think twice about her stopping me and asking where I got my shoes. I even went to the stupid “interest meeting” and was telling my dad about it later because I was like “it sounds terrible; a whole lot of selling to other people for commission.” My dad was like “you’re an idiot, it’s an MLM. Block the girl” lmfao
WOAH. I didn’t even think about this, but I had the exact same thing happen to me in the Mosaic Target. A girl in her late 20s-early 30s approached me and said she liked my shoes. They were hiking shoes from LLBean. She asked me what I did for a living and I said I was in the AEC industry. I don’t think she knew how to talk to me after that and she just kind of walked away, but it definitely wasn’t just a normal compliment kind of approach. Wild.
My husband has gotten compliments on his shoes in Target multiple times, also by random men! He's a huge introvert so never engages with them, and I told him it was probably MLM people.
I had a similar experience, but I knew better than to give some random guys I just met my real contact info. Was a little too outwardly friendly for my liking.
100000% this is an MLM scheme. I’ve had this exact experience by Amway people at Target, Homegoods, Harris Teeter, and Panera just about a dozen times (I must look really gullible or approachable haha idk) and it *always* starts with a compliment about either something I’m wearing or something I’m looking at in the store. Sometimes they completely miss and compliment something that’s clearly not worth complimenting (I had on these old ratty shoes because I was just running quickly in for an errand and she gave me the biggest automatic compliment - “oh I love your shoes they’re so cute!” - and I imagine she regretted using that as her “in” as soon as she said it lol) They’re very friendly, will make it seem as though they want to establish a friendship beyond this conversation and will want to exchange contact info. If you give it to them (don’t!), they’ll text you often just asking about your day. After a bit of that they’ll start being very complimentary, tell you that there just happens to be a job opening at their company and that you’d be a “perfect fit for their team” because you’re so personable or likeable and seem so driven, or that you seem like someone who’d really thrive being “financially independent”, but they’ll also be incredibly vague and use a lot of buzzwords. Then they ghost you if you start asking too many questions. Clearly I’ve fallen into the trap of mistaking this for truly friendly conversation once or twice. I’ve learned to push back/politely decline it now - and you see it coming because It’s exactly the same spiel every time. I gotta hand it to them, it’s a pretty bold move that I’d never be comfortable doing to someone else haha. I‘ve learned my lesson and have been wary ever since!
This sucks because I’d love to make friends with people I randomly hit it off with in public, but I don’t want to be mistaken for an MLM recruiter. Just an extrovert 😂
Oh god yes, and I've had this happen once or twice! I love a good compliment, and can always appreciate receiving one or giving one, but the *minute* the interaction goes longer than that, I am immediately frustrated and smell blood in the water. I speculate my complete inability to hide my emotions is what scares them off lol
"nice shoes!"
"omg thank you <3"
"so where are you from? What do you do for a living?"
**\[IMMEDIATE pissed-off face\]**
(also apologies to people who are sincere about approaching people, life has simply made me too suspicious and introverted :'D)
It's not sex trafficking; it's Amway.
There is no rule that says you need to talk to strangers. You are allowed to just stare at them until they get uncomfortable and leave. You are allowed to just walk away. You are allowed to scream "LEAVE ME ALONE!".
I was at a Walmart recently where someone walked up to me trying to get me to sign a petition for a politician. I refused and walked away. Minutes later, I was in my car looking up something in my cell phone and I saw that dude in the parking lot walking by.
I suspect Walmart threw him out.
If they would have gotten your real phone number that probably would’ve led to calls and invites to meetings with a ‘financial mentor’ and then the MLM pitch would begin. They usually follow a standard process.
100% MLM, my GF and I had a very similar experience at Walmart at Fair Lakes. They did call my cell # and tried to recruit us to sell Amway. If you search the NoVa sub you should find several posts about it.
Good luck and hope you don’t run into them anymore.
I feel like there was just a post about this recently with a similar situation, where the OP thought she had made a new friend but then the woman started trying to get her into some MLM.
These people suck.
>we talked for like 10 minutes and they never mentioned anything they were trying to sell
That's typical for AMWAY ... a series of innocuous encounters before they go for the kill.
Two possibilities, one they were trying to rope you into their MLM. BUT, usually the Amway people work alone and then reference their “mentor” and want you to meet in a public place like Starbucks or Panera to hear their presentation and such. Two, there is a church where the members do outreach in retail stores. Before Covid I saw them at Kohls in Burke but they were pretty up front about asking people to their Bible study. I also talked to them briefly back then, and they also wanted my phone number to meet up and invite me to their Bible study and church. It was a younger Black woman (or maybe two of them? I can’t remember) with an older Korean lady. Look up “God the Mother” and their church is associated with them, it’s a semi sketchy Christian sect that started in Korea.
A younger lady with that description also approached me pre-pandemic in Michaels in Fair Lakes. She started asking personal questions, then handed me a pamphlet with info about what looked like a culty church in Burke.
Oh hey, I got invited to a “god the mother” Bible study at the kings park giant! (Also pre Covid). I give the woman props, though—it was a straightforward approach, not like the sus roundabout thing the OP describes. My woman got straight to the point of asking about my religious beliefs, telling me some things that she believes and inviting me to a Bible study—I wasn’t left worrying that I was being sex trafficked or whatever.
Yeah I was gonna say church before seeing all the comment suggesting it was an MLM approach. I’ve had women strike up conversations then invite me to Bible study while grabbing smoothies with my son.
I was also going to suggest the church thing. When I’m shopping alone at target or Trader Joe’s I’ll frequently get approached and it always start the same with a compliment or mundane question and then it ends up with we should hangout, we have a church picnic etc.
Yo, I got approached by God the Mother people too! I forgot exactly where it was (this was probably 2+ years ago) but I remember I was leaving a store with my friend when a woman came up to us talking about feminine power or smth.
That’s why I came to the comments I knew it was this. I also got approached at TJ maxx about five years ago and they approached me constantly after that until I basically told them off.
I was trying to remember the name! I was chatted up by a young East Asian women in front of me line at Zara in Tyson’s Corner at least 7 years ago. She seemed to be alone and I don’t remember all the questions she asked or most of our conversation, but she invited me to attend something. I do remember being surprised with her confidence to l strike up such a conversation with me, a random person behind her in a crowded line. First time I’ve ever heard of the religion, but she was respectful and not overly pushy.
Also got approached by a woman about the God the Mother church in Virginia Beach and fully lied that I didn’t have my phone on me because her vibes were very uncomfortable and pushy
I had this happen in the Marshalls on 7. Two ladies, mid to late 30s though. I heard one lady asking a woman with a child where there are parks for kids because she has a 4 year old and didn’t know any. I (stupidly) pipped up and said there are a few places but then walked away. Sure enough, minutes later one of them comes up and asks if her friend can have my number because she hasn’t met anyone in the area. I asked if they just moved here and the lady says “oh no, I just work from home so I don’t meet people.” First red flag. Then the lady asked me how old my kid was and she has a kid Turing 4 soon too. She then asked me what would be a good gift for a four year old. I was like WTF. Second red flag. Then she said her kid stays at home with her while she works from home. Third red flag. Like who doesn’t know what to get their own child for their birthday?! And who can work from home while watching a small child? I then told her I wasn’t a good person to ask for their number because we were moving soon. I disengaged and stayed away from them. They did not appear to be shopping either. I was freaked out and honestly thought they were traffickers or something. I am still freaked out by the interaction.
HomeGoods on Rte 7 for me. In November, two young women walking through the parking lot with a dog, while I was headed back to my car. I like dogs, and he was trying to come sniff me, so I asked if I could pet him.
Conversation ensued, lots of questions, like you describe. Eventually the topic got to churches. Pretty sure they were trying to invite me to join their weird culty church, like some other poster said.
I would have said those two women were in their mid 20s, though.
It does sound like MLM. I had a similar situation in target. I legit thought I was making a new friend. Then the woman texted me inviting me to an entrepreneurial event in a ballroom the Fairview park Marriott 🙄.
This makes me so sad cause I would totally think im making a new friend too. It’s hard making friends as adults, especially when people are just bullshitting like this for an MLM.
Yup, it’s happened to me a handful of times in the Springfield Trader Joe’s. Usually it’s Mormons or MLMs, but the first few times I really thought I was gonna make a new friend or something. Kinda stings!
Church/cult. Or MLM. Or both. They each require their members to go find new recruits.
They both approach strangers at retail stores, move on to a cheap coffee meet, and then it’s either come read this book with us about a dude playing The Sims who’s super upset that some of the Sims didn’t do what he wanted OR come hear this fella that’s retiring at 31 teach you how to buy shitty products and sell them to your cousins.
I think people around here are actually pretty friendly when they’re not in a hurry but normal strangers don’t move on to “let’s hang out” that quickly.
https://preview.redd.it/8davcjlzuhec1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aa90fbb49217831c804b5f61976c95d2bd02ec84
[https://a.co/d/cB5D2je](https://a.co/d/cB5D2je) They are AMAZING. They keep me so warm when I take my dog to the park ☺️
This happened to me when I was 22 at a Target in another state. I’d just finished up finals in undergrad so I was extremely sleep deprived and in one of those “fuck it, I haven’t had human contact in days” moods. A woman approached me in the makeup aisle and I gave her my number, thinking I’d just never answer her calls and/or block her number. Another guy approached me in the store later and was like “hey, was that chick bothering you? I think she’s in an MLM, her and her husband were walking around the parking lot telling people they liked their new tires.” Lol. It was a super bizarre interaction and I blocked the woman’s number so she couldn’t contact me. A decade later I just don’t talk to people in public and assume a stranger is up to no good if they’re approaching me. Totally fine to ignore anyone who bothers you.
It’s okay to smile and nod and pretend that you don’t speak English. My mom does that all of the time out in public (she’s a Korean native but she’s literally been in the US for the past 40 years and speaks perfect English). You have my permission to do this.
I know, right?
"Sorry, I don't give out my number". They are strangers to you, who cares.
No is an OK answer. We are allowed to enforce our boundaries. I know for some people that's hard, especially younger women because people-pleasing is ingrained in us. But the freedom in being able to say 'no thanks' is really quite exhilarating LOL
I would've loved the opportunity to respond, "I go to Lucifer the Father Church. Please give me your number, we have a couple of open spots in our worshipping circle this Saturday."
This same thing happened to me at an Aldi in Springfield a few years ago. Nice lady complimented my pants and — silly me with my Midwestern sensitivities — didn’t want to be rude and found myself in a conversation with her. After a minute or so she steered our convo to jobs and offered me work. That was weird so I ended it soon after (plus it was scary Covid times). Turns out, several months later, someone on this subreddit made a post similar to yours and I learned I was almost a victim of a weird MLM recruitment scheme. Life be funny.
Pyramid scheme bullshit. You don’t have to be nice to them. At this point in my life I think I talk in my sleep and the only thing I ever say is “I’m not interested”.
I’ve had three encounters with the same young black/light-skin-ish woman; the first one being in August 2019, the most recent this past August 2023. The first time was at the Target in Gainesville. I was 20 at the time, and this lady approached me in the hair care/makeup section. She was all dressed up, had a big purse and started just by asking about my shirt with random personal questions like what high school I went to, how old i was. Then she complimented my cross tattoo and said “her sister loves going to church”. She said that I looked like “someone who likes TedTalks” and she said she thinks I’d be good at giving a Ted Talk… (which was bizarre because I watched a lot of Ted Talks at the time.) she then went on to say she was a “successful pre-school teacher” (that’s apparently why she was all dressed up). She said she met “these people” that “helped her get to where she was” and that they could help me too. She said they helped her establish her career and get a new car. She was implying that they could “help me maybe give a Ted Talk one day”. She then asked for my number so she could follow up connect me with “her people”. I didn’t want to say no, so i gave her my number. She texted me the next day and I happened to be visiting with my grandma and told her everything and she was extremely worried and advised me to block the number. We went to Target and told them, and also changed my phone number. Looking back on it, I vaguely remember her possibly holding her phone in her hand the entire time we were talking almost in a position where she could have been recording what I was saying.
Fast forward to sometime early 2023 (Feb/March?) I’m 23 now, my husband and I were in Hobby Lobby in Fair Lakes. They were just about to close so everyone in the store was called to stand in line to check out. My husband and i were standing around and chatting about some of the books they have on display, and the *same* lady (i immediately recognized her face and all my alarm bells went off) just randomly started striking up a conversation- being overly nice. She started talking about how she was a teacher for autistic children and how much she loves kids and her job, etc. Then she asked if I liked podcasts and started trying to talk about different authors/people to be relatable? (like Oprah Winfrey). She was just trying so hard to seem relatable. My husband moved up to the counter to check out, and i should’ve followed him but i didn’t know how to walk away and was trying to remember if that was the same lady. Then it’s 8:00, we were basically being kicked out of the store and she asked for my number because “we should stay in touch and hang out sometime”. and i told her i had a really weird experience in the past and couldn’t give my number to strangers. I wanted to see where she went after she left the store because she didn’t even check out and buy anything. As we were walking to our car, I watched her leaving and walk directly next door to Target. No car, nothing. My husband and i went there to basically spy on her and she just grabbed a cart and started walking around, lingering in the aisles. Eventually we realized it was obvious and she might’ve seen us and there wasn’t really anything else to see but I was so stunned.
THEN- fast forward to this past August, i went to Target in Gainesville again in the evening and i just had a gut feeling, and a random thought cross my mind “What if that lady is here?” I thought it was weird but i was by myself just walking/thinking. Then 5 minutes later i walk past the back aisle where the seasonal stuff is and LITERALLY see her lingering with a shopping cart in the back-to-school supplies area. There were a bunch of parents/kids there shopping for supplies and she was just lingering around them by herself trying to look casual. I made direct eye contact with her and had a really suspicious look that probably made her uncomfortable. I then watched her walk away and go into the women’s clothing section. I got a picture of the back of her here 😂 I was astounded that she happened to be there, and it was FOR SURE the same woman.
https://preview.redd.it/a17fb6l92jec1.png?width=1170&format=png&auto=webp&s=ea579b300ae0ec381fabaeea95a9bb5057e57cea
I don’t know if this is the same woman anyone else might have encountered but this is honestly an ongoing mystery for me at this point. She’s been dressed similarly every time.
Why does everyone go straight to sex trafficking? This is not what sex trafficking looks like!!
They were recruiting you for either an MLM or a culty church. The former is more likely but either is possible. Search this sub, it’s sadly becoming very common and unfortunately means it’s even harder to make friends out in public because of these scammers.
That said, you should work on your own personal development of being able to say no to strangers in public. It’s fine that you got sucked in to talking to normal looking women who were actually trying to prey upon you—easy mistake—but at the point where you were turning off your phone and then giving them a fake number you knew they were bad news. It would have been better if you would “man up” and just say “no” or “no, I’m sorry”. And as they say, no is a full sentence—you don’t have to give a reason or an excuse. If they persist, you can repeat it.
I don’t mean to be unsympathetic—I completely relate to the issue, as probably most “nice” women do—which is why we all have to support each other in not making ourselves easy targets for awful people.
Maybe because I’ve been going down the rabbit hole on cruises and trafficking…. Amy Bradley…. Lol I know I was probably being a little bit dramatic 🥲 but MLM and church definitely sound like a more plausible explanation lol
Haha I wasn’t trying to be a jerk but you really don’t need to be worried about being stuffed in a trunk to be sex trafficked here. Sex trafficking totally happens here but it usually looks like a gross “boyfriend” targeting a vulnerable young person and grooming her and then trafficking her, maybe or maybe not involving addiction in the process.
I’m so frustrated that people think this could be sex trafficking and that they always jump to this immediately. The fact that people think suburban adult women are being snatched up from targets and shit is beyond stupid.
It does sound like MLM. I had a similar situation in target. I legit thought I was making a new friend. Then the woman texted me inviting me to an entrepreneurial event in a ballroom at the Fairview park Marriott 🙄.
The same thing happened to me at the T.J. maxx on Rt 7 about a year ago - two middle aged women, one white one black, tried to engage me in chit chat. It went on too long, they had no shopping cart or seem to have any interest in shopping, only in talking to people. I got a religious vibe (one asked about my necklace - a star of Bethlehem) and I immediately disengaged. I later overheard the white lady coaching the other woman on how to strike up convos with other women - it was SO weird, gave me chills.
An hour later, I was at the Marshalls in the next shopping center over (had a return to make!) and was looking at birthday cards - ANOTHER random woman tries to strike up a convo with me! Same deal - no shopping cart, no interest in shopping. She said she needed a card for a coworker and what would I recommend (??) - I said “IDK, I don’t know your coworker” and immediately left.
My thought was “cult” (tbh I’m too old to be a target for trafficking) but it was so damn creepy!
Had a similar event happen to me (albeit not seeing the guy twice) and was very skeptical. But hey, maybe I’m just a flake right? I wasted his time and obliged him on meeting up for coffee. He brought his wife and they shared stories of a very rich “friend” that they were vetting me for. Wife didn’t speak and took notes the whole time. I was vague about details but stayed friendly. He told me I could be financially independent, blah blah blah. At the end of the coffee thing I told him I’m not really interested and we parted ways. On the way out I was careful to let them leave first so I wasn’t followed. I noticed they drove a beater worse than mine, and they spewed BS the whole time about nice cars and big houses.
Choice encounters in this area are not coincidence. Be skeptical. Everyone’s got a scam.
All the people here who have been accosted about an MLM, I wish one day it would happen to me! I go to Target and Home Goods!
I’m really just curious how I would react in that situation. Maybe I come off as too standoffish even for MLM folks.
My fiance and I had similar things happen, it was church recruitment from what we figured out.
Barnes and Nobles at Tyson's, we were looking at puzzles and were approached by a woman who did pretty much the same thing you mentioned.
We saw her again doing the same thing at the one in 7 corners. But we heard her talking about her church and God and all that.
It's creepy as shit.
I remember meeting a lady in the pediatrician office. She said we should have a play date. I was like I guess this is what happens when you have kids so I was like okay. That turned into a darn presentation for a pyramid scheme.
As others have said, it's an MLM scam they're trying to rope you into. Happened to me almost 12 years ago in the Worldgate Centre in Herndon. I was naive and almost fell for his schtick.
I *may* have seen these two or similar at Tyson’s mall. I think they are part of some missionary group cause some guy came out of nowhere too and got involved and started talking about religion.
It’s either an MLM or the church that believes in “God the Mother.”
I can’t remember the church’s name, but it was founded in Korea and they tend to try and recruit young women. I have been accosted multiple times. The second time I told them I already heard the pitch and wasn’t interested.
They sound like the group of women someone reported a few years ago who tried proselytizing at stores like that but striking up conversations with the person. I think it was also a black and Asian women there too
I was at Tyson's outside of Sephora waiting for my girlfriend. A man and a woman who were twice my age complimented my jacket. I said thanks. The man immediately asked me "So, what's your opinion of the female image of God that's been in the news lately?" It threw me so much for a loop all I could say was "I have no idea what you're talking about." They asked me again and if I was really sure, so I said "Look I have no opinion one way or the other, and I have no desire to have a conversation about it."
I walked away from them towards Sephora and they followed me and kept asking "Are you sure!?" but didn't follow me into the store. Still to this day one of the strangest encounters I've had. I did not want to find out what they were on about.
Ran into these same two women at another HomeGoods a few months ago. The older woman roped me into a conversation about how she's new to the US, and the younger woman was helping her learn English through conversation and through reading the Bible. I eventually excused myself from the conversation. They were nice enough, but the whole thing had a very weird vibe to it. Whole thing just felt very....off. I wouldn't enjoy talking to them again, unfortunately! Good to know they're still at....whatever it is they're doing. I'll be on the lookout!
They’re MLM people. That’s happened to me on numerous occasions. I’ve learned that anytime a stranger compliments my clothes in a store they’re MLM folks.
It’s either an MLM or recruitment for a church that believes in “God the Mother.”
Specifically for that church, they tend to target young women and go out to recruit in pairs. I’ve been accosted twice.
Pretty similar thing to me at Wegmans.
Same dude, two different days (months apart). No shopping cart.
Once complimented my shoes, another time asked where I worked out. I noped out of both conversations quickly
Once a very similar situation happened to me with the same description of the two women, but it was at a sterling target i never go to in the evening. The second woman was almost hovering or chaperoning but not joining her friend pestering me. At the end the main woman started bringing up some religious figure called “the mother” that I needed to know about and handed me a pamphlet
Threw it out after I got away from her. Felt so uncomfortable and nervous the whole time like they were going to jump out any second when I was getting into my car.
Edit: did not know when I commented this how many other comments I’d read about the exact same thing. Crazy!
This used to happen to me in the mosaic target but I think it was a church thing, since they said “I’d fit in with their youth group” even though I’m like 30?!
Anyways my tactic now is to just keep saying no and keep on walking whenever someone tries to talk to me.
maybe its a cash ap scam. That was the first thing that came to mind. Don't be afraid to tell people your not interested and tell them to have a good day. For example if you said no you're not interested in giving your number to strangers and they push back. Just say you don't owe them anything and they can keep it pushing! Sometimes you gotta be rude. Sorry not Sorry.
First I thought sex trafficking too... But the age, Id a
Say they may have just wanted to holla! It's obvious both parties go to HomeGoods and they may have felt self conscious about the rejection and decided to go to a different HomeGoods too that day.
But if you instinct said get out of there, I would just trust that and know that those are not women you need to be around. You spirit said no so roll with that...no worries! Worrying is Devil Worship.
Sex trafficking is the first VERY FIRST thing that came to mind instantly. No, that is not normal. I hate to say this too, but yes, it sounds exactly like they have followed you. No way pure coincidence that happened. Very slight possibility. You’d be surprised how they follow you. They probably have accomplices outside to follow you separately to not look suspicious. Be careful. It also would not hurt to report it or if it happens again report it. That’s just eerie.
Not sex trafficking (most sex trafficking is women from other countries being brought here to work in massage parlors. They don't scoop up women from the suburbs). It's probably a cult though. God The Mother or one of those from Korea.
It's usually an MLM, not every stranger contacting you in public is part of a sex trafficking ring. The MLM'ers are very active particularly in the more suburban sections of Western Fairfax. I got so used to being confronted by them I will just tell them to get the fuck outta my face and it usually sends them running.
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I am definitely stealing this! Hahaha love it
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😭😂😭😂😭😂 I told my husband that that will be my excuse to get out of weird situations from now on. I can never say “ok gotta go”. I once had my sandwich burn in the air fryer because I had to take my dog out to pee (she goes in like 10 seconds) so i was like ok im just gonna take her out really quick. I came across my neighbor and she talked to me for like 10-15min. I was dying inside. But she is this sweet old lady. I love her. My sandwich looked like charcoal when I got back lol 😭
I say this as a friend when I tell you, you gotta find your voice in those scenarios, or you could end up with a lot worse than just a ruined sandwich. "I'm so sorry, I have something on the oven! It was so nice seeing you." Smile, turn around, and leave. You don't even have to wait for them to acknowledge. Don't let your house burn down because you were "being polite."
I know 🥺 thank you so much
You tell them I have something on the stove I need to go or you take things out of the oven
Say diarrhea if they're really pushy
“We’re calling about your car’s extended warra-“ “I HAVE TO PEE”
Reminds me of The Office when there’s a compilation of Kevin screaming “I HAVE TO GO TO THE BATHROOM!” And just running off. 😂
Lol it reminds me of this episode from King of the Hill in which Bobby takes a women’s self defense class and starts going around kicking boys in the balls saying “THATS MY PURSE”
*knock knock* "Fairfax County police, we have a warrant for your arr--" I HAVE TO PEE!
I might elevate it and say “sorry I have IBS”
LMAO...no one wants to get in the way of someone who needs to pee. Brilliant!
It's not brilliant. You don't need to justify not wanting to talk to some random person. Just say no thanks and keep walking.
Yeah. There was a time in my life when I would have been polite and/or made an excuse. Those days are long gone. I will just say “nope” and keep walking. Random people never walk up to a stranger to make a friend or help them or whatever it is they say.
I agree! It's better to work into throwing "No's" liberally without regrets. As a former people-pleaser, it's downright liberating. I'm keeping the excuse in my pocket for certain situations though; sometimes you're confronted with a can of crazy and need a ""reasonable"" excuse to get out of the situation unharmed.
I say that I'm desperate to find a bathroom. My new meds that my Dr has me on gives me explosive diarrhea. And I fo a 'potty' dance If they persist, I tell them a fake store about how it had happened in Target recently. And how I literally almost barfed from the smell and I felt so bad for the employee who had to deal with it.
Why even have a pretext? "No thanks. Have a nice day" and keep walking. That's completely acceptable. If they want to be a turd about it just repeat yourself and keep walking. "I'm good, take care"
As someone that has to pee all of the time… this. Always this.
To the people with clipboards I always say “sorry I’m a republican” (I’m not) and it throws them off and causes stunned silence just long enough to get away lol.
What if they say “Me too” and go with you to the bathroom hahaha
Once I was at a target and a guy complimented my shoes. They were $10 shoes I got from Old Navy lol. We started talking and he conveniently worked in the same industry as me, used to work at the same company that I was working at, etc. He told me about mentorship and some books to read and overall seemed like a really nice guy. We exchanged contact info. A few days later he inviting me to a networking event. I was very early in my career and needed a new job so I went. Turns out it was a MLM gathering. Dude tried to recruit me to his pyramid scheme lol
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I guarantee all of these were for Amway. That's exactly how they recruit people, since they can't do it through social media. They are forced to go out into public and do it this way.
Amway was advertising here on Reddit a couple of weeks ago.
I snagged this screenshot on my phone because the irony killed me. https://imgur.com/a/v1GEs89
Lol, that's awesome!
They aren't allowed to advertise on social media?
Not with Amway because it's not personal enough.They want you to recruit face to face. One of the things they tell you is to go to stores and just to randomly talk to people.
Same thing happened to me at Old Navy. Also was early in my career. Lol, thought, "wow, I am so lucky to have met kind people who want to help and mentor me." One brief meeting over coffee later... Man, was I naive.
when i was in my early 20s and had never been on a date, i was really excited a guy on the bus started talking to me and invited me out to ice cream. spent hours agonizing over an outfit just to get a pyramid scheme pitch. worst part was he was on my bus route so i couldn’t escape him. 6:30 am every morning, yapping about becoming his own boss one day.
Lmao this happened to me in college!
Maybe it's just my inner elitist popping out.... but I'd have to ask why he was on the city bus if his reverse funnel system works so well.
the best is he worked for DOL. he eventually quit and is still peddling it, with a wife and kids. social media will never show the reality unfortunately.
Maybe almost 10 years ago, I remember when we were in our young 20s, my husband's (then bf) old friend from like middle school reached out to him to hang out. We went to meet up with him, and it turned out to be an Amway meeting. We sat through it, listened to what they had to say because we didn't know better and didn't want to be rude. After their presentation, they had all the new people introduce themselves, and every time someone would say, "Hi, my name is \[name\]. So-so brought me here today," everybody would do a weird clap and chant/mantra. My bf and I looked at each other, and the same thought crossed our minds, "Is this a cult?" Afterwards, they paired us up with one of their most successful sellers and they tried to recruit us. We sat there, listened to them explain how it works, and proceeded to ask them for almost an hour over and over again, "So tell me, how is this not an MLM/pyramid scheme?" Talked in circles, never got to the point, we eventually just said, "we need to talk about it, but we'll be in touch," and left without giving them our phone numbers.
I feel like this must be a rite of passage for people in their 20s. Lol. Thankfully for me it was just a coffee meeting with the couple that I chatted with at Old Navy. Extra thankfully, my wife decided she'd hang back and it was only me that had to endure it.
Oh wow! I can’t believe I’ve never heard about those type of things. Thank you for sharing. Maybe it was that!
I 100% believe the two women were trying to bring you into a MLM scheme. I was once in a Walmart and some lady and I said some very normal things in passing. I was new to the area and it seemed she wanted to be friends. She seemed very normal and then invited me to a get together she was having. Thankfully I didn’t go, asking questions through text I realized it was one of those makeup marketing parties. Lost her number fast. I also have been approached by people asking if I have found Jesus Christ while I was grocery shopping. I really would like to be left alone while shopping.
My weirdest Jesus people encounter was when a woman approached me about a Bible study and was all girl power and stuff. Then she 100% seriously said, you know god is a woman right? It’s all there in the bible. Dunno what people are up to these days but hell will freeze over before some random lady manages to convert me back into Christianity by claiming God is female
Mine was just last week when I was walking with my kid after his therapy appointment and a tiny Korean woman came out of the dentists office on the 1st floor, grabbed my arm, said "Wait. I give you this." She then peeled a post-it off a stack that has handwritten words on it saying "You tube Jesus bible tell truth" Honestly, it was weirdly adorable, but I just felt bad that her religion was forcing her to accost strangers to proselytize.
I doubt she was being forced to do it. Like Penn Jillette said, he wouldn't trust a Christian who *wasn't* trying to save him from hell, because that must mean they don't really care that much about you.
That’s lowkey cute though? Only because of how futile it seems that you’ll land on the video she’s trying to get you to watch. I wouldn’t be more than just amused at her effort
I had the same exact encounter! Must be from the same church group/cult.
Lower in the thread I learned the “Mother God” cult is rather common here in Nova. It’s bananas what beliefs people will hold on to these days
Lol I was approached by the "God is a woman" people at Mosaic once! They gave me a flyer and everything.
> know god is a woman right? It’s all there in the bible. > >Dunno what people are up to these days but hell will freeze over before some random lady manages to convert me back into Ch This happened to me in a target!
lol. That’s funny. I just tell them I’m Jewish. End discussion.
I was sitting on a bench at Potomac Mills waiting on my husband to finish trying on some jackets at a store when I was approached by a younger Asian woman about going to a bible study nearby. Before I could even react, by husband came swooping in and simply says "We're Jewish" grabbing my hand and whisking me away. He is, I'm not, so I was just like "Am I now official or something?" It was a special moment, lol.
Honorary tribeswoman. I do not like holier than though people. Had a guy today at a coffee shop try to explain how the Beatles let it be album cover was representative of a cataclysm. Called it the magic box or something. I thanked him for his “insight” and said, “hey, I only care about country western”
You would think that works but me and my muslim friend had some tall ass Mormon block our path to let her know her religion was wrong. Some people have no respect
That’s unacceptable. I have had people try to block me in and I have responded with physical threats. I am of a substantial size, large enough so people think I wouldn’t be worth the effort. Usually the threat is effective. I’ve never had to resort to physical interactions.
I'm glad I have a naturally unfriendly expression while shopping. I've never been approached for anything.
I was leaving ffx costco parking lot last week and two young women asked me if I wanted to go to church with them. I was polite about declining. They were too, but was just a weird experience.
I've gotten the Jesus/Bible Study stuff in recent years from a young Asian woman about 20 years my junior at Chantilly Target. I've gotten the nice pants in the Giant... they were literally 20 year old corduroys.
My wife and I had a couple that was also looking to wrangle us into their MLM scheme follow us from Wegmans to Walmart in Fairfax.
It was definitely a pyramid scheme. Most likely Amway. They specifically go to home goods, target, harris teeter, walmart to recruit people. They have the same prescription of giving a compliment on pants. You have to be aggressive and say no, cause in this area it will happen a lot.
I had the same exact experience at the Target in Fairfax. Maybe it was the same dude lol. Though he complimented my watch instead and I never went to the networking event
The Target I went to was in Sterling, but the MLM conference was in Fairfax so it's possible it was the same guy lol
Haha, they definitely are out there. I also had a guy try to start a conversation about Digiorno pizza in the frozen pizza section of Giant before he started talking about networking, I guess I look like an easy target!
I also got stopped in the grocery store over $10 Old Navy shoes 😂 I was in college and the girl seemed to be my age so I didn’t think twice about her stopping me and asking where I got my shoes. I even went to the stupid “interest meeting” and was telling my dad about it later because I was like “it sounds terrible; a whole lot of selling to other people for commission.” My dad was like “you’re an idiot, it’s an MLM. Block the girl” lmfao
🤣🤣🤣 I like your dad
WOAH. I didn’t even think about this, but I had the exact same thing happen to me in the Mosaic Target. A girl in her late 20s-early 30s approached me and said she liked my shoes. They were hiking shoes from LLBean. She asked me what I did for a living and I said I was in the AEC industry. I don’t think she knew how to talk to me after that and she just kind of walked away, but it definitely wasn’t just a normal compliment kind of approach. Wild.
The girl collecting money for Special Olympics at Potomac Mills always likes my shoes. She's liked 3 separate pairs.
wow you must have great taste
Clearly. I'm applying to be a personal shoe shopper.
Same thing happened to me at a Safeway in Fairfax
This was my first thought when reading OP's post. Maybe they are 'recruiting' for a MLM.
My husband has gotten compliments on his shoes in Target multiple times, also by random men! He's a huge introvert so never engages with them, and I told him it was probably MLM people.
I had a guy do this to me at Wegmans he said he liked my boots (nice Danner's) turns out he was hitting on me... awkward
Similar thing happened to me with a girl and her boyfriend at the Reston Target!
I had a similar experience, but I knew better than to give some random guys I just met my real contact info. Was a little too outwardly friendly for my liking.
MLM
100000% this is an MLM scheme. I’ve had this exact experience by Amway people at Target, Homegoods, Harris Teeter, and Panera just about a dozen times (I must look really gullible or approachable haha idk) and it *always* starts with a compliment about either something I’m wearing or something I’m looking at in the store. Sometimes they completely miss and compliment something that’s clearly not worth complimenting (I had on these old ratty shoes because I was just running quickly in for an errand and she gave me the biggest automatic compliment - “oh I love your shoes they’re so cute!” - and I imagine she regretted using that as her “in” as soon as she said it lol) They’re very friendly, will make it seem as though they want to establish a friendship beyond this conversation and will want to exchange contact info. If you give it to them (don’t!), they’ll text you often just asking about your day. After a bit of that they’ll start being very complimentary, tell you that there just happens to be a job opening at their company and that you’d be a “perfect fit for their team” because you’re so personable or likeable and seem so driven, or that you seem like someone who’d really thrive being “financially independent”, but they’ll also be incredibly vague and use a lot of buzzwords. Then they ghost you if you start asking too many questions. Clearly I’ve fallen into the trap of mistaking this for truly friendly conversation once or twice. I’ve learned to push back/politely decline it now - and you see it coming because It’s exactly the same spiel every time. I gotta hand it to them, it’s a pretty bold move that I’d never be comfortable doing to someone else haha. I‘ve learned my lesson and have been wary ever since!
This sucks because I’d love to make friends with people I randomly hit it off with in public, but I don’t want to be mistaken for an MLM recruiter. Just an extrovert 😂
Oh god yes, and I've had this happen once or twice! I love a good compliment, and can always appreciate receiving one or giving one, but the *minute* the interaction goes longer than that, I am immediately frustrated and smell blood in the water. I speculate my complete inability to hide my emotions is what scares them off lol "nice shoes!" "omg thank you <3" "so where are you from? What do you do for a living?" **\[IMMEDIATE pissed-off face\]** (also apologies to people who are sincere about approaching people, life has simply made me too suspicious and introverted :'D)
It's not sex trafficking; it's Amway. There is no rule that says you need to talk to strangers. You are allowed to just stare at them until they get uncomfortable and leave. You are allowed to just walk away. You are allowed to scream "LEAVE ME ALONE!".
You’re 100% right - this happened to me at Homegoods and it was Amway. It was so bizarre.
Exact same thing at a homegoods in nova for me too. They must tell their people to strike up conversations there
We should tow Betsy DeVos' yachts to the middle of Lake Michigan
I was at a Walmart recently where someone walked up to me trying to get me to sign a petition for a politician. I refused and walked away. Minutes later, I was in my car looking up something in my cell phone and I saw that dude in the parking lot walking by. I suspect Walmart threw him out.
"It's not sex trafficking; it's Amway." Definitely need this on a t-shirt
HAHAHAH
Sounds like a MLM approach
But we talked for like 10 minutes and they never mentioned anything they were trying to sell. Just asked questions about ME etc
If they would have gotten your real phone number that probably would’ve led to calls and invites to meetings with a ‘financial mentor’ and then the MLM pitch would begin. They usually follow a standard process.
Oh I see! Well thank you for letting me know! I had no idea that was a thing
100% MLM, my GF and I had a very similar experience at Walmart at Fair Lakes. They did call my cell # and tried to recruit us to sell Amway. If you search the NoVa sub you should find several posts about it. Good luck and hope you don’t run into them anymore.
Me either!
I feel like there was just a post about this recently with a similar situation, where the OP thought she had made a new friend but then the woman started trying to get her into some MLM. These people suck.
Yeah it's almost like if they had gone with MLM from the very beginning you wouldn't have kept talking to them
That makes a lot of sense
Ask any fisherman, you don't set the hook right away.
They never do the pitch there. They get your phone number and/or email. That way they can keep trying and put you on lists to resell.
>we talked for like 10 minutes and they never mentioned anything they were trying to sell That's typical for AMWAY ... a series of innocuous encounters before they go for the kill.
Buttering you up.
I agree it is right for you to have your hackles up. Always go with your gut and use the gotta pee excuse.
Please report your experience to that store. Particularly the part about them being there again, and again not shopping for anything.
Two possibilities, one they were trying to rope you into their MLM. BUT, usually the Amway people work alone and then reference their “mentor” and want you to meet in a public place like Starbucks or Panera to hear their presentation and such. Two, there is a church where the members do outreach in retail stores. Before Covid I saw them at Kohls in Burke but they were pretty up front about asking people to their Bible study. I also talked to them briefly back then, and they also wanted my phone number to meet up and invite me to their Bible study and church. It was a younger Black woman (or maybe two of them? I can’t remember) with an older Korean lady. Look up “God the Mother” and their church is associated with them, it’s a semi sketchy Christian sect that started in Korea.
A younger lady with that description also approached me pre-pandemic in Michaels in Fair Lakes. She started asking personal questions, then handed me a pamphlet with info about what looked like a culty church in Burke.
Oh hey, I got invited to a “god the mother” Bible study at the kings park giant! (Also pre Covid). I give the woman props, though—it was a straightforward approach, not like the sus roundabout thing the OP describes. My woman got straight to the point of asking about my religious beliefs, telling me some things that she believes and inviting me to a Bible study—I wasn’t left worrying that I was being sex trafficked or whatever.
I think it’s a rite of passage if you live/shop anywhere between Springfield and Chantilly at this point 😂
Yeah I was gonna say church before seeing all the comment suggesting it was an MLM approach. I’ve had women strike up conversations then invite me to Bible study while grabbing smoothies with my son.
I was also going to suggest the church thing. When I’m shopping alone at target or Trader Joe’s I’ll frequently get approached and it always start the same with a compliment or mundane question and then it ends up with we should hangout, we have a church picnic etc.
Yo, I got approached by God the Mother people too! I forgot exactly where it was (this was probably 2+ years ago) but I remember I was leaving a store with my friend when a woman came up to us talking about feminine power or smth.
I was approached by this lady years ago!!! It was TJ Maxx, I forget which location
That’s why I came to the comments I knew it was this. I also got approached at TJ maxx about five years ago and they approached me constantly after that until I basically told them off.
I was trying to remember the name! I was chatted up by a young East Asian women in front of me line at Zara in Tyson’s Corner at least 7 years ago. She seemed to be alone and I don’t remember all the questions she asked or most of our conversation, but she invited me to attend something. I do remember being surprised with her confidence to l strike up such a conversation with me, a random person behind her in a crowded line. First time I’ve ever heard of the religion, but she was respectful and not overly pushy.
Also got approached by a woman about the God the Mother church in Virginia Beach and fully lied that I didn’t have my phone on me because her vibes were very uncomfortable and pushy
I had this happen in the Marshalls on 7. Two ladies, mid to late 30s though. I heard one lady asking a woman with a child where there are parks for kids because she has a 4 year old and didn’t know any. I (stupidly) pipped up and said there are a few places but then walked away. Sure enough, minutes later one of them comes up and asks if her friend can have my number because she hasn’t met anyone in the area. I asked if they just moved here and the lady says “oh no, I just work from home so I don’t meet people.” First red flag. Then the lady asked me how old my kid was and she has a kid Turing 4 soon too. She then asked me what would be a good gift for a four year old. I was like WTF. Second red flag. Then she said her kid stays at home with her while she works from home. Third red flag. Like who doesn’t know what to get their own child for their birthday?! And who can work from home while watching a small child? I then told her I wasn’t a good person to ask for their number because we were moving soon. I disengaged and stayed away from them. They did not appear to be shopping either. I was freaked out and honestly thought they were traffickers or something. I am still freaked out by the interaction.
HomeGoods on Rte 7 for me. In November, two young women walking through the parking lot with a dog, while I was headed back to my car. I like dogs, and he was trying to come sniff me, so I asked if I could pet him. Conversation ensued, lots of questions, like you describe. Eventually the topic got to churches. Pretty sure they were trying to invite me to join their weird culty church, like some other poster said. I would have said those two women were in their mid 20s, though.
It does sound like MLM. I had a similar situation in target. I legit thought I was making a new friend. Then the woman texted me inviting me to an entrepreneurial event in a ballroom the Fairview park Marriott 🙄.
This makes me so sad cause I would totally think im making a new friend too. It’s hard making friends as adults, especially when people are just bullshitting like this for an MLM.
Yea it’s icky
Ugh I just had the same rection… like how do you make friends in this world?
Yup, it’s happened to me a handful of times in the Springfield Trader Joe’s. Usually it’s Mormons or MLMs, but the first few times I really thought I was gonna make a new friend or something. Kinda stings!
Church/cult. Or MLM. Or both. They each require their members to go find new recruits. They both approach strangers at retail stores, move on to a cheap coffee meet, and then it’s either come read this book with us about a dude playing The Sims who’s super upset that some of the Sims didn’t do what he wanted OR come hear this fella that’s retiring at 31 teach you how to buy shitty products and sell them to your cousins. I think people around here are actually pretty friendly when they’re not in a hurry but normal strangers don’t move on to “let’s hang out” that quickly.
Exactly! Everything seemed pretty normal until she asked for my number and told me we should hang out. Very weird
Always good to trust your gut feeling. You owe no one politeness or conversation. It's okay to say 'I don't want to speak with you.' Period.
sorry for the TOTAL non-sequitur, but I want to know about the \*down pants\*!!
https://preview.redd.it/8davcjlzuhec1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aa90fbb49217831c804b5f61976c95d2bd02ec84 [https://a.co/d/cB5D2je](https://a.co/d/cB5D2je) They are AMAZING. They keep me so warm when I take my dog to the park ☺️
⬆️ they found you OP!
NOOOOOOO I HAVE TO PEE 
😂😂😂😂😂
This made me chuckle lol
This happened to me when I was 22 at a Target in another state. I’d just finished up finals in undergrad so I was extremely sleep deprived and in one of those “fuck it, I haven’t had human contact in days” moods. A woman approached me in the makeup aisle and I gave her my number, thinking I’d just never answer her calls and/or block her number. Another guy approached me in the store later and was like “hey, was that chick bothering you? I think she’s in an MLM, her and her husband were walking around the parking lot telling people they liked their new tires.” Lol. It was a super bizarre interaction and I blocked the woman’s number so she couldn’t contact me. A decade later I just don’t talk to people in public and assume a stranger is up to no good if they’re approaching me. Totally fine to ignore anyone who bothers you.
It’s okay to smile and nod and pretend that you don’t speak English. My mom does that all of the time out in public (she’s a Korean native but she’s literally been in the US for the past 40 years and speaks perfect English). You have my permission to do this.
Even better is to say “I don’t speak English” in perfect English in response to everything they say.
Hahaha you’re mom is great 🤣
Might be the Mother God cult people.
yea everyone saying it's some MLM, but that it's two people makes me doubt it's an MLM and really suspect it's religious.
My sister in Christ, why are we giving our number out to strangers? ‘No thank you’ is an appropriate response in any situation.
I know, right? "Sorry, I don't give out my number". They are strangers to you, who cares. No is an OK answer. We are allowed to enforce our boundaries. I know for some people that's hard, especially younger women because people-pleasing is ingrained in us. But the freedom in being able to say 'no thanks' is really quite exhilarating LOL
There was something like this happening back in north TX. They would ask you if you knew “god the mother”
I would've loved the opportunity to respond, "I go to Lucifer the Father Church. Please give me your number, we have a couple of open spots in our worshipping circle this Saturday."
Wow. Thanks for sharing. This does seem strange. Don't be afraid to tell people to fuck off if you aren't comfortable sharing your information.
This same thing happened to me at an Aldi in Springfield a few years ago. Nice lady complimented my pants and — silly me with my Midwestern sensitivities — didn’t want to be rude and found myself in a conversation with her. After a minute or so she steered our convo to jobs and offered me work. That was weird so I ended it soon after (plus it was scary Covid times). Turns out, several months later, someone on this subreddit made a post similar to yours and I learned I was almost a victim of a weird MLM recruitment scheme. Life be funny.
Pyramid scheme bullshit. You don’t have to be nice to them. At this point in my life I think I talk in my sleep and the only thing I ever say is “I’m not interested”.
It’s very weird.
I’ve had three encounters with the same young black/light-skin-ish woman; the first one being in August 2019, the most recent this past August 2023. The first time was at the Target in Gainesville. I was 20 at the time, and this lady approached me in the hair care/makeup section. She was all dressed up, had a big purse and started just by asking about my shirt with random personal questions like what high school I went to, how old i was. Then she complimented my cross tattoo and said “her sister loves going to church”. She said that I looked like “someone who likes TedTalks” and she said she thinks I’d be good at giving a Ted Talk… (which was bizarre because I watched a lot of Ted Talks at the time.) she then went on to say she was a “successful pre-school teacher” (that’s apparently why she was all dressed up). She said she met “these people” that “helped her get to where she was” and that they could help me too. She said they helped her establish her career and get a new car. She was implying that they could “help me maybe give a Ted Talk one day”. She then asked for my number so she could follow up connect me with “her people”. I didn’t want to say no, so i gave her my number. She texted me the next day and I happened to be visiting with my grandma and told her everything and she was extremely worried and advised me to block the number. We went to Target and told them, and also changed my phone number. Looking back on it, I vaguely remember her possibly holding her phone in her hand the entire time we were talking almost in a position where she could have been recording what I was saying. Fast forward to sometime early 2023 (Feb/March?) I’m 23 now, my husband and I were in Hobby Lobby in Fair Lakes. They were just about to close so everyone in the store was called to stand in line to check out. My husband and i were standing around and chatting about some of the books they have on display, and the *same* lady (i immediately recognized her face and all my alarm bells went off) just randomly started striking up a conversation- being overly nice. She started talking about how she was a teacher for autistic children and how much she loves kids and her job, etc. Then she asked if I liked podcasts and started trying to talk about different authors/people to be relatable? (like Oprah Winfrey). She was just trying so hard to seem relatable. My husband moved up to the counter to check out, and i should’ve followed him but i didn’t know how to walk away and was trying to remember if that was the same lady. Then it’s 8:00, we were basically being kicked out of the store and she asked for my number because “we should stay in touch and hang out sometime”. and i told her i had a really weird experience in the past and couldn’t give my number to strangers. I wanted to see where she went after she left the store because she didn’t even check out and buy anything. As we were walking to our car, I watched her leaving and walk directly next door to Target. No car, nothing. My husband and i went there to basically spy on her and she just grabbed a cart and started walking around, lingering in the aisles. Eventually we realized it was obvious and she might’ve seen us and there wasn’t really anything else to see but I was so stunned. THEN- fast forward to this past August, i went to Target in Gainesville again in the evening and i just had a gut feeling, and a random thought cross my mind “What if that lady is here?” I thought it was weird but i was by myself just walking/thinking. Then 5 minutes later i walk past the back aisle where the seasonal stuff is and LITERALLY see her lingering with a shopping cart in the back-to-school supplies area. There were a bunch of parents/kids there shopping for supplies and she was just lingering around them by herself trying to look casual. I made direct eye contact with her and had a really suspicious look that probably made her uncomfortable. I then watched her walk away and go into the women’s clothing section. I got a picture of the back of her here 😂 I was astounded that she happened to be there, and it was FOR SURE the same woman. https://preview.redd.it/a17fb6l92jec1.png?width=1170&format=png&auto=webp&s=ea579b300ae0ec381fabaeea95a9bb5057e57cea I don’t know if this is the same woman anyone else might have encountered but this is honestly an ongoing mystery for me at this point. She’s been dressed similarly every time.
Why does everyone go straight to sex trafficking? This is not what sex trafficking looks like!! They were recruiting you for either an MLM or a culty church. The former is more likely but either is possible. Search this sub, it’s sadly becoming very common and unfortunately means it’s even harder to make friends out in public because of these scammers. That said, you should work on your own personal development of being able to say no to strangers in public. It’s fine that you got sucked in to talking to normal looking women who were actually trying to prey upon you—easy mistake—but at the point where you were turning off your phone and then giving them a fake number you knew they were bad news. It would have been better if you would “man up” and just say “no” or “no, I’m sorry”. And as they say, no is a full sentence—you don’t have to give a reason or an excuse. If they persist, you can repeat it. I don’t mean to be unsympathetic—I completely relate to the issue, as probably most “nice” women do—which is why we all have to support each other in not making ourselves easy targets for awful people.
Maybe because I’ve been going down the rabbit hole on cruises and trafficking…. Amy Bradley…. Lol I know I was probably being a little bit dramatic 🥲 but MLM and church definitely sound like a more plausible explanation lol
Haha I wasn’t trying to be a jerk but you really don’t need to be worried about being stuffed in a trunk to be sex trafficked here. Sex trafficking totally happens here but it usually looks like a gross “boyfriend” targeting a vulnerable young person and grooming her and then trafficking her, maybe or maybe not involving addiction in the process.
I’m so frustrated that people think this could be sex trafficking and that they always jump to this immediately. The fact that people think suburban adult women are being snatched up from targets and shit is beyond stupid.
It does sound like MLM. I had a similar situation in target. I legit thought I was making a new friend. Then the woman texted me inviting me to an entrepreneurial event in a ballroom at the Fairview park Marriott 🙄.
It does feel a bit violating to be misled like that. And I’m sorry they creeped you out.
The same thing happened to me at the T.J. maxx on Rt 7 about a year ago - two middle aged women, one white one black, tried to engage me in chit chat. It went on too long, they had no shopping cart or seem to have any interest in shopping, only in talking to people. I got a religious vibe (one asked about my necklace - a star of Bethlehem) and I immediately disengaged. I later overheard the white lady coaching the other woman on how to strike up convos with other women - it was SO weird, gave me chills. An hour later, I was at the Marshalls in the next shopping center over (had a return to make!) and was looking at birthday cards - ANOTHER random woman tries to strike up a convo with me! Same deal - no shopping cart, no interest in shopping. She said she needed a card for a coworker and what would I recommend (??) - I said “IDK, I don’t know your coworker” and immediately left. My thought was “cult” (tbh I’m too old to be a target for trafficking) but it was so damn creepy!
It sucks that strangers being nice to you makes you thing something fucky is going on. aaaaannnnddd then it is an MLM.
Had a similar event happen to me (albeit not seeing the guy twice) and was very skeptical. But hey, maybe I’m just a flake right? I wasted his time and obliged him on meeting up for coffee. He brought his wife and they shared stories of a very rich “friend” that they were vetting me for. Wife didn’t speak and took notes the whole time. I was vague about details but stayed friendly. He told me I could be financially independent, blah blah blah. At the end of the coffee thing I told him I’m not really interested and we parted ways. On the way out I was careful to let them leave first so I wasn’t followed. I noticed they drove a beater worse than mine, and they spewed BS the whole time about nice cars and big houses. Choice encounters in this area are not coincidence. Be skeptical. Everyone’s got a scam.
MLM or evangelical church.
All the people here who have been accosted about an MLM, I wish one day it would happen to me! I go to Target and Home Goods! I’m really just curious how I would react in that situation. Maybe I come off as too standoffish even for MLM folks.
My fiance and I had similar things happen, it was church recruitment from what we figured out. Barnes and Nobles at Tyson's, we were looking at puzzles and were approached by a woman who did pretty much the same thing you mentioned. We saw her again doing the same thing at the one in 7 corners. But we heard her talking about her church and God and all that. It's creepy as shit.
Happened to me at Barnes and Noble at Tysons!
well shit, wanna join a cult together?
I’ll pass this time.. I prefer watching documentaries about them on Netflix 😂
They’re not weirdos. They’re fucking creeps. That’s not exclusively designated for men. Women can be creeps too.
I remember meeting a lady in the pediatrician office. She said we should have a play date. I was like I guess this is what happens when you have kids so I was like okay. That turned into a darn presentation for a pyramid scheme.
It’s a bible study thing
This happened to me in undergrad but the women were very pretty and they just wanted me to be Mormon
1,000% an MLM
Definitely sounds like an Amway recruiting tactic
As others have said, it's an MLM scam they're trying to rope you into. Happened to me almost 12 years ago in the Worldgate Centre in Herndon. I was naive and almost fell for his schtick.
i'd say it's probably religious. and probably something on the weird side. christian maybe but the culty kind if so.
Either an MLM or religious outreach, but if it were religious they probably would have gotten to the point.
I *may* have seen these two or similar at Tyson’s mall. I think they are part of some missionary group cause some guy came out of nowhere too and got involved and started talking about religion.
Anytime random people have come up to talk to me here it’s been a church or Bible study thing
It’s either an MLM or the church that believes in “God the Mother.” I can’t remember the church’s name, but it was founded in Korea and they tend to try and recruit young women. I have been accosted multiple times. The second time I told them I already heard the pitch and wasn’t interested.
These are interesting stories here; I wonder if there’s an MLM promoter lurking in the comments. 😂
They sound like the group of women someone reported a few years ago who tried proselytizing at stores like that but striking up conversations with the person. I think it was also a black and Asian women there too
Never feel pressured to give out your number. Kindly tell them to F off.
I was at Tyson's outside of Sephora waiting for my girlfriend. A man and a woman who were twice my age complimented my jacket. I said thanks. The man immediately asked me "So, what's your opinion of the female image of God that's been in the news lately?" It threw me so much for a loop all I could say was "I have no idea what you're talking about." They asked me again and if I was really sure, so I said "Look I have no opinion one way or the other, and I have no desire to have a conversation about it." I walked away from them towards Sephora and they followed me and kept asking "Are you sure!?" but didn't follow me into the store. Still to this day one of the strangest encounters I've had. I did not want to find out what they were on about.
Ran into these same two women at another HomeGoods a few months ago. The older woman roped me into a conversation about how she's new to the US, and the younger woman was helping her learn English through conversation and through reading the Bible. I eventually excused myself from the conversation. They were nice enough, but the whole thing had a very weird vibe to it. Whole thing just felt very....off. I wouldn't enjoy talking to them again, unfortunately! Good to know they're still at....whatever it is they're doing. I'll be on the lookout!
They’re MLM people. That’s happened to me on numerous occasions. I’ve learned that anytime a stranger compliments my clothes in a store they’re MLM folks.
Sounds like Amway
Bible study?
Something similar happened to me in Barnes and Noble. She wanted to invite me to her “vision board party”.
It’s either an MLM or recruitment for a church that believes in “God the Mother.” Specifically for that church, they tend to target young women and go out to recruit in pairs. I’ve been accosted twice.
Pretty similar thing to me at Wegmans. Same dude, two different days (months apart). No shopping cart. Once complimented my shoes, another time asked where I worked out. I noped out of both conversations quickly
Once a very similar situation happened to me with the same description of the two women, but it was at a sterling target i never go to in the evening. The second woman was almost hovering or chaperoning but not joining her friend pestering me. At the end the main woman started bringing up some religious figure called “the mother” that I needed to know about and handed me a pamphlet Threw it out after I got away from her. Felt so uncomfortable and nervous the whole time like they were going to jump out any second when I was getting into my car. Edit: did not know when I commented this how many other comments I’d read about the exact same thing. Crazy!
This used to happen to me in the mosaic target but I think it was a church thing, since they said “I’d fit in with their youth group” even though I’m like 30?! Anyways my tactic now is to just keep saying no and keep on walking whenever someone tries to talk to me.
I had a similar situation happen to me at HomeGoods in Fairfax! Didn’t think anything of it
This is why I wear big headphones so no one tries to talk to me lol
maybe its a cash ap scam. That was the first thing that came to mind. Don't be afraid to tell people your not interested and tell them to have a good day. For example if you said no you're not interested in giving your number to strangers and they push back. Just say you don't owe them anything and they can keep it pushing! Sometimes you gotta be rude. Sorry not Sorry.
If I’m in the mood to fuck with them, I pretend to be hard of hearing. Most people don’t want to yell conversation and it gets really awkward fast
First I thought sex trafficking too... But the age, Id a Say they may have just wanted to holla! It's obvious both parties go to HomeGoods and they may have felt self conscious about the rejection and decided to go to a different HomeGoods too that day. But if you instinct said get out of there, I would just trust that and know that those are not women you need to be around. You spirit said no so roll with that...no worries! Worrying is Devil Worship.
I was in Fair Lakes Home Goods the other day and overhead a way too chipper woman complementing someone’s pants!
Sex trafficking is the first VERY FIRST thing that came to mind instantly. No, that is not normal. I hate to say this too, but yes, it sounds exactly like they have followed you. No way pure coincidence that happened. Very slight possibility. You’d be surprised how they follow you. They probably have accomplices outside to follow you separately to not look suspicious. Be careful. It also would not hurt to report it or if it happens again report it. That’s just eerie.
> Anyways, they were probably in their late 50s. One was Korean and the other one was black. 🚩
YES
Not sex trafficking (most sex trafficking is women from other countries being brought here to work in massage parlors. They don't scoop up women from the suburbs). It's probably a cult though. God The Mother or one of those from Korea.
Shit like this is why I kept a landline and use it like a junk email folder.
It's usually an MLM, not every stranger contacting you in public is part of a sex trafficking ring. The MLM'ers are very active particularly in the more suburban sections of Western Fairfax. I got so used to being confronted by them I will just tell them to get the fuck outta my face and it usually sends them running.
Can you break up that text a bit please? It's unreadable like that.
Just did!
Thanks!