Order for Girl Scout cookies was a $24,000 hoax
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PORTLAND, Ore. -- Two Girl Scout troops were thrilled when a Hillsboro company ordered six thousand boxes of cookies.
But as it turns out, the order was a $24,000 hoax.
A troop parent says a co-worker approached her to set up a large corporate order with a Hillsboro company. The parent says she then exchanged many e-mails with someone claiming to be from the company. But when it was time to collect the money, she says she found out it was fake, and the co-worker confessed to the hoax.
Now, the girls have to sell the 500 cases of cookies to raise the money they need for camp.
The girls are admittedly upset. Troop parent Jennifer Reed said the troops set aside cases of cookies to fill the massive order.
“It let the girls down tremendously,” Reed said.
Most of the girls do not have enough cookie credits to go to camp. Since cookie-selling season is officially over, the troops now have to make special arrangements to try and sell enough cookies to save their summer.
“We have all these younger girls in our other troop. They were all looking forward to going to camp,” said Madalynn, a 12-year-old troop member. “Now with this, we might not be able to go to camp. We really need to be able to sell the cookies.”
You can help them out. The troops will have a cookie-selling table at the Girl Scout offices at 9620 S.W. Barbur Blvd. between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday.
You can also send an email to cookies@girlscoutsosw.org for more information on helping the troops.
so whats the problem, the hoax worked and all the cookies are sold
Every single time the girl scouts sell cookies there is some kind of a "Hoax". Â I think they set this up just to have everyone feel bad for them.
@Shay-Y you realize that they have to pay for the cookies if they don't sell them right? hoax?Â
@smlsa2004Â No..they don't. Â Sales of this size go through the local councils office, which is why this story stinks to so many people. Â We know how this works, we know the details
@OregonProud I beg to differ with you on this. The local council was not involed. Specifically who do you know?
@Shay-Y  Easy to verify, doesn't appear to have been done. I have emailed the author of the original article at KPTV to ask some questions. Others can do the same if they care. kai.porter@kptv.com
The fact that ABC National news is on site leads credence to the truth of the story, so relax all you conspiracy theorists.
@smlsa2004Â Â It's sad that people will believe anything that they read.
This entire article seems to be based entirely off of someone's claims, none of which appears to be independently verified. Â
I'm amazed that people cannot see this and are so willing to accept anything.
This article appears to have begun at KPTV.com, and has since been republished by KATU, KOMO, KBOI, and other media outlets. That does not make it true. Â
If you read the original KPTV article, it too lacks any mention of independent verification of Jennifer Reed's claims. Journalism 101: verify your source's claims before presenting them as facts. Â
Â
@lakeview @smlsa2004 You seriously don't believe that if the national news was here reporting the facts wouldn't have been checked? Lighten up
@smlsa2004Â Too many people like you approach things with the half-ass approach. Â This kind of thinking is what scammers depend on
Wow there are some bitter people on the boards today.
I agree patty
This story "smells" and if a story smells that means the truth died somewhere and is decomposing.
Large "corporate orders" in most Girl Scout Councils go through the Council's marketing offices, NOT an individual or a single troop BECAUSE of the large amount of merchandise (cases of cookies) and the high $$$ value. Â
Something, is wrong, very wrong. Â Please note that the cookie sales bring into Girl Scout Councils up to 80%+ of their annual income (for salaries, and everything else). Â It is not for going camping;, most councils are selling off camps as it is.
@Sandra Martel McKinney Dent  I sent a respectful email to KATU's GM asking for more details on this story. I have no idea what is true or not true, or what if any steps this author took towards confirming this story. For all I know, the author did confirm the story. However, that information is not here. It's a red flag in my opinion, and at the very least, I'd like KATU management to know that this is happening. gm@katu.comÂ
Kerry Tomlinson of KATU, is this article based entirely on heresay, or did you actually see these emails and/or interview anyone besides this one "troop parent?"
I think your readers deserve to know if this article is based on anything more than one person's claims. Â
@lakeview Are you kidding?  "NEWS" is summaries of press releases and the stories of the community...there is no investigation. When KATU says "Investigative Report" it means that they drove a NEWS van across town and set up a camera and talked to a bystander.
@Icarus @lakeview  And you are OK with this? This KATU article was posted on KOMO.com, and I have a problem with it. Â
Again, Kerry Tomlinson, you owe it to your readers to explain whether or not KATU could independently confirm these claims or not.
@lakeview LOL
Yeah, that's bad...but...I know the woman that, at least, was the CEO Â of Girl Scouts Columbia River Council and she saw her #1 job as 'money raising'. Â She was pretty proud of how well she had done with them. Â
I found her to be unscrupulous and "do what ya gotta do no matter what" type of person. Â When I read this, my immediate thought was "what did KATU do to confirm any of this?". Â It seems very odd that the Girl Scouts would ship this much product without getting paid first...at least a check.
This seems a bit like a "oh please help these poor girls who got taken advantage of"...lets' face it...adults are in charge of it all and this could easily be a scam.
@OregonProud a scam on who?
@smlsa2004Â to drive sales
Did KATU confirm any of this before running this story? Did anyone at KATU ask to see these emails? Â
@lakeview wgar?
What was the persons name, and company name? Non of this information should be considered protected especially in light of what was done. That should definitely amount to a felony charge.
I can't go too deep in to the story but what I can say is the person that placed the order was acting as her mother who is a manager of this company. She knew all the names to drop including the V.P. of the company. It all seemed legit up to the point where payment was needed and then all the excuses started to flow.
they must have a real need to replace those at the top their ordering skills well they suck to say the least how many times is this going to happen before they are tossed
Just woke up!
I dont agree with what patty says but I do not trust not a 1/4 of the shyt i read in email all turns out to be scams or lies for the most part. but i will say this is not the first year i have seen this from the girl scouts either
Wow, I sounded silly! You know what I mean!
Patty, I know the people involved, the person who was trying to scam this troop is a fraudulent scammer!
Patty, you are so very wrong. Its all very legit and there is email correspondence to prove it. Please keep your remarks to yourself if you don't have anything positive to add
The co-worker and person who was on the other end of the emails should be prosecuted - I am sure that the emails stated a good faith promise to purchase the cookies. I would also hope that the leader would bring the actions of the co-worker to the management of the company they work for. The management should fire the co-worker - I would not want a person of that moral fiber to be working at my company. I would think that the GS council would be able to take back some of the cookies and help the girls sell the rest.
I haven't read all the comments but I'm confused and I suppose it's due to a poorly written story. These girls should have been able to sell enough cookies to make camp even without the fake order. Did they stop selling after the order came in? And they can pay to go to camp if they don't have enough cookie credits. The story seems to be more of a solicitation than anything else. I think the moms have more explaining to do than what's been offered in this article.
pemfnglbaycsibl
(please excuse me for not giving likes but as you can see im busy lol'ing)
I hope the person who called in the fake order plans on putting herself into debt to buy as many of these cookies as she can. Then I hope she has to eat them until she pukes.
Head up GS, next time you get a HUGE order like this, please, please place a call to the general manager of the company to verify the order is legit. Protect yourselves! You know the saying "if it sounds too good to be true", and if you didn't before, you sure do now!
I hope these girls are able to offload all of these cookies.
@WhenCowsAttack These girls need this experience more than they need someone to save them.  They need to see that they can save themselves...
@lumberghfukder @WhenCowsAttack Well, yes, I agree. I don't think any one person should leap in and buy all of the cookies. I *do* think the "perp" should suck it up and buy a bunch of them, and I *do* think the girls should bust their butts and get creative to try to get rid of the cookies and make it to camp, and I DEFINITELY think they should and probably have, learn a valuable lesson from this.
@WhenCowsAttack @lumberghfukder What these girls need to see is that a small dose of common sense goes a LONG way to preventing problems similar to this.  I would say that the troop needs a new troop leader.
cco
(cookies cause obesity)
iawhtwtmbah (i agree with hayward the whole thing may be a hoax)
Wow, I am stunned at the comments here.  What no one seems to grasp is that this troop of girls does not get a huge sum from a box of cookies, they probably get about .65 a box. Once cookies are in hand, they (the troop) is responsible for paying for them.  I think that with an order this size, some safeguards need to be in place to ensure it is not fraud but to blame the girls, who look to be mostly Brownies (2-3rd grade!) for this?  Why is the Council not getting involved to look into legal action against the person who made the order?
@RnzWScisrz  Yes, perhaps the troop leader should have been looking after those best interests...would you let your little girl go on an overnight trip with "adult supervision" that demonstrated such poor supervision and foresight. Â
@RnzWScisrz Unfortunately, they most likely have NO legal recourse.  They probably called the Troop Leader a dumb@$$ to her face (which she deserved).
@RnzWScisrz lol
its a publicity stunt to sell more cookies. This has mom written all over it!
What about contacting Tillamook. They make Samoa Ice Cream and such. Maybe they can take some off your hands.
should be a semi honest lawyer to toke the case pro-bono and sue the coworker for a fraudulant contract plus all expenses she made a verble contract should pay for it.
@jeepboyx9 I would and they could pay me in cookies, but I'm only an armchair lawyer.
@axpman @jeepboyx9  Based on previous demonstrations of ignorance....they would probably hire you
@jeepboyx9Â Spellcheck can be your friend