A scam involving door-to-door book and magazine sales is running in Athens, according to Athens-Clarke County Police.

According to police, a white college-age male about 5 feet 8 inches tall and 150 pounds, claiming to work for an Internet company called MyDynastySales.com, approached the homes of three complainants to sell books and magazine subscriptions to raise money for a trip to London.

The man told at least one complainant he lived nearby with his parents. When the man left, the complainant checked online and found the information to be suspect, then contacted police.

MyDynastySales.com has a design similar to professional Web sites, but includes several grammatical errors.

One page featuring a “Testimonial” from a person identified as Chris says, “What I want from this business is to make money, have something I have always wanted and be somebody that people pay attention too [sic]. I know, some day I am going to have what I need because I am burning desire to get it [sic].”

“This is a national problem. If you Google MyDynastySales, you’ll find five pages of people who have fallen victim to the same thing,” Athens-Clarke County Police Detective Sean McCauley said. “My guess is they’re going from town-to-town. They just keep going until they’re caught, and they haven’t been caught yet.”

McCauley said if people are approached by a salesman they should first check for an identification badge and a sales permit, both of which are required of sales people by a state ordinance.

“If they don’t see that on them, they need to call 911 so we can come out,” he said.

“Call us immediately and have us come out there so we can ID them.”

McCauley also warned unlicensed salespeople have been reported selling meat and cleaning supplies, but appear to be unrelated to the scam.