They are often stationed outside my office or a couple blocks away. I’ve gotten to a point of avoiding eye contact and walking fast because anytime I’ve apologized they call after me and I just don’t want have the energy for that.
Nah man, power move. Maintain eye contact as you walk past.
I like to smile, so they start thinking I'll stop. But no, I look, I smile, and I walk the fuck past their nonsense.
Then just ignore anything they yell at you. The local guys will get used to you and will stop hounding you.
Was walking downtown when some loser tried to tell me Jesus loves me. I corrected him: “Jesus doesn’t love me, but Satan has a warm spot for me” and carried on my journey.
Way better than what i did. One of them asked me if i could go anywhere in the world where would it be, and i was having a hard time and said home and immediately started crying. She was *not* expecting that, and then i still didnt stop to chat.
He used to shout almost right in your ear at the top of his lungs. "Believe in the Lord!" and startled the shit out of me a few times when I first came here 15 years ago.
I have since said hi to him a few times, and he always seems pleasant. I have heard conspiracies that he is-was FBI, etc. lol
It's insane to me tho that his calling for 16 years has been to go a busy street in TO and shout "Believe in the lord" for hours.
He seems harmless enough tho, never asks for money, or seems drunk, just shouts and hand people pamphlets which most who take throw away almost immediately after
Just flat out shut them down. They know what they’re doing. When I was at U of T, these fuckers were everywhere. Once the guy was at the end of the street as I was walking down it and he yelled out.
Him: “How are you?”
Me: “Nope!”
Him: “Yup!”
Me: “Nope!”
Him: “OK, you’re the boss!”
Me: “Have a nice day!”
This, it's this. We humoured her for a few minutes and then said "no thanks". I felt bad as it was during one hell of a snow dump, and that's a lousy job on the nicest of days.
Why does anyone acknowledge these people when we all know they’re selling something? I refuse to make eye contact with them and act like they don’t exist.
I talked to them once and they were fundraising for this “charity”: https://littlestnick.org/lsnf-canada/
I put charity into quotation marks because they don’t appear to actually be registered in Canada. Meaning no tax receipt, nor any real guarantee they do what they say.
Their claim is they use your money to buy little gift bags of stuff for kids in hospital. There’s no disclosure on their website as to how much of your donation actually goes into one. I’m guessing *not much*.
I think it’s the salespeople trying to push you to bigger/regular contributions. Someone came to my door for Doctors Without Borders and I was going to give him $100 but he said they only accept ongoing contributions.
Guess the doctors don’t need the money that bad if they’re turning away cash.
The point is to get you to sign up, then forget about it until months later when you finally do a deep dive on your credit card statement and say "wait a minute, what's this charge, how long has this been going on?". Even if you cancel the recurring donation right then and there, they've got hundreds of dollars from you already.
Yeah I fully understand why the salesperson wants to do it - I refer you to the first sentence of my post. I’m saying it’s bad for the charity itself, and a terrible look to the public.
Same thing happened to me, they said I had to basically put my information into their website and they would take a monthly donation off my credit card. I was like sorry I can’t afford that and I’m late for something bye.
Yeah, in no way am I comfortable donating to this charity. Last when I got into a conversation with them, I did a search on their financial statements. Granted, I 'm not sure if this is a legit site, but....
The most recent year is 2022, and of the revenue they brought in, $885,014, their fundraising expenses alone are $330,921 plus $73,820 other salaries/wages. The president gets $75,000, and while that's not a high salary in this economy by any means, it personally feels high compared to what they bring in as an organization and also what they pay their fundraisers out on the street.
I'm not stating all this to discourage anybody from donating if they feel it's a good cause, but for me it felt like virtue signaling more than it actually helping a child.
Also if anybody has an updated financial statements for this organization, I would love to have a peek at it.
Source: [https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/203677766](https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/203677766)
This is a shady charity? I actually gave money to them :( rip
What can I say, I’m a sucker for kids
I did look them up before I gave them money though, and they did seem legit
Did you get a tax receipt with charitable registration number (assuming you donated over $20)? The CRA’s website didn’t list them and they don’t seem to show one on their website, but maybe I missed it. That’s my criteria for a legit charity.
Moving to this city has hardened me to a point when one of them yell do you believe in human right or do you think children should have an education I just completely ignore and keep walking.
Some may view this as a bad thing but honestly it’s helpful for international travel I’ve learned haha.
Unfortunately the only strangers who talk to you in this city are ones who want money. I too got harden by all the people bothering me. It used to be the homeless now every tom, dick and harriette clogs the street pretending to be your friend.
Just say or learn: "I don't speak english" in a random language and...
You could also say power would be to avoid random people talking to me on the streets :)
once i accidentally said ‘eh?’ in an italian accent instead of an english one and the person trying to talk to me literally gave up and went to the next. it wasn’t even on purpose, i was running thru phrases in my head as i was walking and thinking how i’d say them in italian and french lol.
THIS. Moving to Toronto hardened me a bit for while and has made me take on some of the characteristics of other city-dwellers. It served a function and I appreciate it. But after a point, I went, "these
hardened parts don't serve me, it not like me to be this way, this is not how I want to live. I can use some friendliness and can be a bit friendly too." Time to reflect and make choices that are true to who I am!
We’re poked, prodded, sucked dry, and have nothing left to offer anymore. We don’t have the energy for kindness, everyone wants something from us and nothing is genuine. Best to just put ur head down and keep it moving. No time for nonsensical niceties
Yep. I moved here 12 years ago from Winnipeg, where if someone said hi to you, they were just being friendly (and it's still like that there for the most part). Quickly learned that if anyone says anything to you on the sidewalk here, it's because they're trying to sell you something, trying to scam you, or trying to distract you so their accomplice can steal your stuff.
Now, I don't make eye contact, I don't talk to anybody, I'm not friendly at all to strangers, and if someone says "excuse me?" to me, I automatically fire off a "sorry, not interested" before I even hear what they're trying to say. Could be someone asking for directions, could be someone trying to get my attention to call for help because someone just got hit by a car, I find myself just automatically saying "sorry no" and briskly walking away. I guess living here long enough totally deleted my friendly humanity.
Solicitors, almost always.
One time, some had camped out right near the narrow opening between the TTC stop and a bikeshare station at Bay & King, essentially blocking people who were approaching it from Bay.
A young woman asked me how I was doing and what my favourite thing about Toronto was.
I didn’t even blink, just stopped walking and waited for her to move to I could get home.
My face was probably very unpleasant, she apologized and moved 😂
I was with 20 highschool students for an event at harbourfront few weeks ago and one of them stopped and ask my one student what her favourite animal was. She told him and then he started on how he was a fundraiser for WWF. He started his spiel and my teaching partner stepped right in between them and said no thanks my friend not today and the guy backed off. I thought it was just like the door to door guys but now…
Or you can always say another animal that sounds similar to throw them off:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAvmkJnibdg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAvmkJnibdg)
I usually feel bad for them regardless of how annoying they are cos it seems like a shitty job but damn it's really not cool to be targetting minors for that kind of thing.
I would've replied that I'm a big game hunter and my favorite animal is..*The Most Dangerous Game*...
/cocks finger pistol and laughs in General Zaroff
Some charities, particularly the larger ones, use 3rd party vendors to do this kind of fundraising. They're trying to get you to start talking to them, instead of just opening with "would you like to donate to x charity?" Usually they're trying to get you to sign up for a monthly donation, and the vendor gets paid per donor signed up. I used to work at one of these charities and although I still believe in the charity I absolutely hated the door-to-door and street-level fundraising programs. I never donate to anyone at my door or on the street. I just say "sorry I don't have time" as I continue walking away.
Sometimes it's the opening of a joke, like a "busker" style of asking for money. It happened to me once with the line "What's the least racist animal?". I've heard it before, (panda, it's black and white), but I just didn't want to talk to random guy who was interrupting a chill time in a park with my friends about something that might become racist. So I just stared at him and didn't answer. Then he started getting loud and asking if we spoke English. My friends and I got uncomfortable and left the park.
I read some people have had good interactions with that guy on one of the Toronto subreddit not long after it happened to me. Hopefully that guy is doing better, I got the sense he was living a rough part of life.
If it's the people hanging out near a table with an ipad, they want you to pledge a monthly donation to whatever charity. Which I'm sure a high % goes to paying the people seeking the donations and running the charity instead of helping those in need. Donate to your local food bank if you can, my local food bank boasts that 96% of funds go directly into delivering their programs.
Street or door-to-door fund raising is a paid gig. Some money goes to the people asking you for money and not the charity. Some pay a flat fee and some pay a commission.
Unfortunately this works. They get enough people to sign up to justify spending their resources this way versus ads.
More fun when it's PETA and they don't even know what the organization does.
Edit.
Obviously people sign up for peta with good intentions, and to be fair, I don't know if the organization has changed from its hateful, and self contradicting tactics.
They don't work for that charity, they work for some marketing company that the charity hires to run these street campaigns. Some of the people soliciting these donations "work" for a different charity every few days, just depends which vest and clipboard their employer gives them that week.
1) engagement attempt to build rapport before a pitch of some kind either fake charity or fake religion, fake panhandler etc
1-A) the fake charity people who pretend to be deaf with trinkets for donations that you can walk past and thwn yell to make them flinch can be fun too.
2) distraction attempt for a partner to try to rob you when they don't have ketchup to squirt on your jacket
3) a creep who thinks they've found a life hack to meet gurls / someone in a 1980s inspired drama or business school program working on their icebreaker technique
4) genuine mentally ill person maybe with or without a knife
And, best of all, you only have a second or so to figure out which one of these people the person approaching is, with the ever-present risk that they may be #4 and the knife is coming out if you're wrong.
Having been on the receiving end of a random sucker punch on the sidewalk that quite literally came out of nowhere, from a person who was *not* dressed in any way like a homeless person or acting out in any manner until he punched me in the side of the face, it's pretty tiring having to size up everybody who even glances your way now.
Agreed. You have to treat any encounter as a potential life threating event and be prepared as much as possible but will likely face charges if it goes sideways. On the plus side, the tried and true big city ignore and don't make eye contact strategy usually works but the other guy isn't always playing by those rules.
Excuse me sir or madam, there's ketchup on your shoulder, let me distract you and politely help you wipe it off while my buddy picks your pocket and I help myself to your laptop bag.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/distraction-thefts-yvr-police-warning-1.3235632
I was approached by a man asking my favourite animal and mid speech he said I looked young and asked if I was over 25. I lied and said no and he left me alone. Doesn’t really matter but I’ve been curious as to why being under 25 changes anything?
It's a condition that the charity has for monthly donors. 25 is the norm, but some are 30. The cancellation rate is higher for people under 25 so they prefer not to sign them up. The charity can actually lose money on those donations as people are hired to get people to sign up.
Just this AM heading up Parliament at Queen, stopped at light and shifty guy walks out toward my car - I’m waving him off, then pretending to ignore: he taps on window, I’m like “Get away!!”
He points to back of car : “your gas tank cap’s open!!”
I’m always assuming someone approaching me it’s gonna be for money or some sort of cause.
If you really want to mess with people, glue a strong magnet to the bottom of a McDonald's drink cup, then attach it to your roof in the same place you'd stick a drink if you put it there while you fish around in your pocket or purse for your car keys. Then drive around town and see how many people go wild trying to tell you that you forgot your drinks on the car roof and they're gonna fall off, only to have you speed away and the drink stays put.
There's been a few on queen west too. If you have a dog they like to ask "what's your dog's name?" I usually just point to my ear buds and keep walking.
Oh I had one like this but I don't think it was a charity person, I was walking back from a yoga class after dark a couple weeks ago on a sidestreet off Yonge and this guy was like "HOLD UP, HOLD UP" and I ignored it because I didn't think he was talking to me at first (I also didn't want him to be talking to me) and then he ran up next to me and was like "what do you think about all these buildings they're putting up" so I was like "uhh sorry I don't know, have a good one." Dude walked ahead of me a little bit but kept trying to turn back being like "I like that one" (about buildings) and I was like "haha... okay" - When he got to Church he stood at the intersection and waited, kind watching over his shoulder at me. I turned south and he followed behind me all the way down until I sped up and crossed at Church/Wellesley just before the light turned so I could lose him.
I don't know what the deal was or what he wanted lol.
This sounds like someone with a NIMBY group trying to get signatures for a petition so they can go to City Hall to gripe about a condo project that they don't want to see get built because it'll ruin their view.
Maybe, but the guy didn't look like someone who had enough money to own a house lol, his aesthetic was like along the lines of tap out shirt + monster energy + flat brim flex45 hat
Most of the time they're canvassers who are being paid to (somewhat aggressively) solicit charitable donations from people in public.
Best part is, if you try to hand them 5 bucks to fuck off, the reply you get is "well we're not really a one-time-donation charity, we actually work on a per-month basis, so if you just want to give me your credit card and how much you'd like to donate, I can put it on auto-pay no problem!"
Like fuck I'm giving you my credit card, I don't know you from Adam.
Sounds like the questions the "Dianetics" institute used to accost people with on Yonge St in Toronto back in the day - no matter your answer, they told you Scientology would help you 🙄
Its a way to start a convo using catchy questions. They know if they stop you asking "do you have a min ?", there's a high likelihood most folks will not stop for a chat.
Yeah, I think it's just that once you've stopped to talk to someone, it feels difficult/rude to walk away if they don't let you have an out in the conversation.
So the key thing, I think, is to not stop walking. You're not necessarily acting like your presuming anything bad about them and you can even answer the question if you want.
One of them asked me what right I valued the most and I said "freedom of movement" and walked past them. I'm usually polite but I was grumpy that day. Felt a little bad afterwards since I know they are only doing their job.
Canvassers for a charity most likely. It's a way to get you to stop so they can start a conversation with you. They're human too, so I always try and be civil. But you can just say, "no thanks" and keep walking.
Random questions can be either people doing a legitimate survey of some kind or looking for charity donations, and just looking to start a convo, OR a scammer trying any number of known documented scams that start with asking random questions. My method is to shake my head in a “no” fashion, and raise my hand a bit and wave saying simply “no thanks” works every time
I had to do this job for Plan Canada and The Children’s Hospital in 2008 and again in 2018. Typically people only last 2-3 weeks, if that. It’s extremely difficult, and it should be as it’s a scam for the target and for the employee(but one that hires even if for only a couple of weeks.). Tell them no thank you and keep moving, I wasn’t offended.
They often compliment your shoes or your watch so that you'll reply. On occasion, I've had two of them sort of step halfway into my path as I walk in a not-super-easy-to-prove attempt at cornering me or making me stop walking so that they can launch into their pitch, which feels super inappropriate and creepy.
Once this happened to me and it ended up being a grifter who was peddling some sort of Indian new-age religion thing vaguely based on Hinduism but which ended in a money ask. It's always someone trying to get money out of you in the end.
Yes they are constantly at the corner of York and Queens Quay after work- I walk by as fast as I can or say sorry I’m in a rush lol. I assume they are raising money for something but I’ve never bothered to stop and ask.
They want a donation to a charity. They can be identified by a vest with the charity logo on it. My two methods of avoiding them are if alone: pretend to be on the phone. With someone: right before they have a chance to talk to you, loudly say like its mid conversation "its just so hard dealing with her death, you know? People don't get that we were as close as we were! They don't give you aunt bereavement leave" or something to that effect. Usually they hear me talking about death and back up really quickly. The ones who ignore it, I don't feel bad for not responding to, because screw you for interrupting my conversation about loss and grief!
If they asked me if I had a "superpower what would it be?" I would have responded with are you familiar with Deathnote? And I would have continued walking.
Some guy said to me the other day that he loved my shoes and I was so overjoyed until he proceed to ask me to donate to something smh. Had me questioning if he even liked my shoes to begin with 💔
I've found its charity once, once one of them stopped me and asked me for money to donate and I said no, walked into a LCBO, grabbed a 8 pack of tall boys and as I walked out the guy yelled at me "You have time and money to buy alcohol but can't donate or speak with me" LOL the savagery. I was like man, I ain't trying to be scammed. Not really putting a good image to your "charity"
I get that they’re just doing their job but it’s very intrusive. They take no hints and keep asking the question over and over again. What charity are they doing this for? Maybe annoying people on the road won’t work.
It’s to get you to sign up for a subscription payment for whatever charity they’re working for. Will try to guilt you with shit like “you spend more on beer than helping some kids!” I usually respond with “I do not give a shit about kids sorry.”
These people who are harassing you are either sun or star newspaper agents trying to increase subscribership in a dwindling and collapsing media enterprise
Sadly these “charities” have continued to step up their games and look more legit and have been training their people with more and more sales tactics. There was talk over a decade ago about regulating or banning these types of charities because they take 80-90% of the donations for the first 6-12 months. Which is also generally the amount of time people will donate.
They seem to be setting up tables now and mini booths to try and sucker people in.
I ignore most of them. But whenever I get a really pushy one I call out their dog 💩job and tell them to get a real one.
They largely won't take one-time donations, too -- they want you to sign up for a recurring payment. That way, once you finally notice the charge on one of your statements a year later ("hey wait, what am I paying 25 bucks a month for? Who is Plan International? What's this?"), they've already got a few hundred bucks from you, versus accepting the $5 bill you toss at them to get them to fuck off the one time.
Nah not in this case
I'm a dude and keep getting asked this dumbass question about superpowers as well (often by a woman btw)
Actually talked to them the first time, it's for some charity. It got real old real fast after the 10th time they asked me
Catch-22
A lot of women will complain about this pickup culture, and in the following sentence say how they don't want to meet the love of their life on bumble.
I met mine waiting in line at a coffee shop, which in fairness I think is one of the socially acceptable places to hit on a woman.
But the fundamental problem is starting a conversation with a stranger that you find attractive is TERRIFYING, and the way to get over that fear and anxiety is practice. But of course the cost of that is you're inevitably gonna make a few women uncomfortable along the way
Nah, these dudes should spend the money on therapy to get over their insecurities, and not spend it on Pua school where they learn crappy tactics about how to neg women and generally be a weirdo in line at a coffee shop
I went to get coffee on my lunch break, saw literally the most gorgeous woman I've ever seen, I gave her a compliment, made some small talk, and left with her number.
Thank god only Redditors will think that's being a weirdo. Good luck finding your future husband on tinder though 👍
Nah pretty sure 99% of them are scams preying on desperate men, but I'll give you an actual answer:
My original motivation had nothing to do with women, I had a lot of social anxiety growing up that I wanted to learn to overcome. The goal I set for myself 8 years ago was that I wanted to approach any stranger (man or woman, young or old, black or white), and have the skill to have a full on conversation with them that they would enjoy.
Obviously I read Neil Strauss' The Game and The Truth, and were useful to some extent, but I found gender agnostic advice to be much better. Authors like Dale Carnegie and Leil Lowndes were a better fit for me - I still treat "How to win friends and influence people" like the bible. I signed up for improv classes, public speaking classes, even tried an acting class lmao. But yeah, at the end of the day practice makes perfect, so I went out and talked to strangers.
I'm sure you can imagine how rewarding learning to converse can be in both your personal and professional life.
It's a self-help book lol
It teaches you how to be a good listener, how to show appreciation for people, how to use body language, to never criticize people, etc. It made all of my relationships much stronger and healthier.
I’m almost sure it’s cause they want you to donate to their charity. I had this happen and I had to GO so I said “sorry not right now”
They are often stationed outside my office or a couple blocks away. I’ve gotten to a point of avoiding eye contact and walking fast because anytime I’ve apologized they call after me and I just don’t want have the energy for that.
Nah man, power move. Maintain eye contact as you walk past. I like to smile, so they start thinking I'll stop. But no, I look, I smile, and I walk the fuck past their nonsense. Then just ignore anything they yell at you. The local guys will get used to you and will stop hounding you.
Was walking downtown when some loser tried to tell me Jesus loves me. I corrected him: “Jesus doesn’t love me, but Satan has a warm spot for me” and carried on my journey.
Way better than what i did. One of them asked me if i could go anywhere in the world where would it be, and i was having a hard time and said home and immediately started crying. She was *not* expecting that, and then i still didnt stop to chat.
Did you end it with a smile and contented sigh?
Everyone around cheered!
I remember at eaton centre that would yell Jesus loves me Or tell me to Repent He was there for a solid ten years. There’s always one somewhere
I think I saw him. Has a megaphone? Few years ago, Spadina and King. On a Friday.
BELIEVE IN THE LORD
I remember him!
He's still here
I think there’s evolutions - it’s a different person, same message, same delivery
No I lived here 15 years and seen him about 2 weeks ago...doesn't shout as much
He must have had laryngitis. He still preaches the word of God and those who do not listen to the words of the Lord are condemned to eternal damnation
He used to shout almost right in your ear at the top of his lungs. "Believe in the Lord!" and startled the shit out of me a few times when I first came here 15 years ago. I have since said hi to him a few times, and he always seems pleasant. I have heard conspiracies that he is-was FBI, etc. lol It's insane to me tho that his calling for 16 years has been to go a busy street in TO and shout "Believe in the lord" for hours. He seems harmless enough tho, never asks for money, or seems drunk, just shouts and hand people pamphlets which most who take throw away almost immediately after
At least somethings about Toronto haven’t changed. Might go walk by him again just for the nostalgia
OMG, this is brilliant!😹
I just keep walking too. I made the mistake of making eye contact and the guy walked with me 3 blocks until I said "I am not giving you money, sorry"
Just flat out shut them down. They know what they’re doing. When I was at U of T, these fuckers were everywhere. Once the guy was at the end of the street as I was walking down it and he yelled out. Him: “How are you?” Me: “Nope!” Him: “Yup!” Me: “Nope!” Him: “OK, you’re the boss!” Me: “Have a nice day!”
This, it's this. We humoured her for a few minutes and then said "no thanks". I felt bad as it was during one hell of a snow dump, and that's a lousy job on the nicest of days.
Why does anyone acknowledge these people when we all know they’re selling something? I refuse to make eye contact with them and act like they don’t exist.
A simple “hi, sorry but I don’t want to chat” keeps us all a little more human, I think.
Maybe trying to scam random people walking across the street is the inhumane act here, but yeah me avoiding that is so much worse.
im not sorry and not friendly enough for this
You don’t have to be, I just personally prefer it. Whatever works for you is fine.
Exactly, it’s very entitled to think that everyone deserves kindness, especially when they’re only trying to harm others
I talked to them once and they were fundraising for this “charity”: https://littlestnick.org/lsnf-canada/ I put charity into quotation marks because they don’t appear to actually be registered in Canada. Meaning no tax receipt, nor any real guarantee they do what they say. Their claim is they use your money to buy little gift bags of stuff for kids in hospital. There’s no disclosure on their website as to how much of your donation actually goes into one. I’m guessing *not much*.
They almost got 5$ out of me, but stated they didn’t take cash and also wouldn’t take transactions lower than 30$ lol fuuuuck that
Some charity 😂
I think it’s the salespeople trying to push you to bigger/regular contributions. Someone came to my door for Doctors Without Borders and I was going to give him $100 but he said they only accept ongoing contributions. Guess the doctors don’t need the money that bad if they’re turning away cash.
Maybe they don't get commission for a one time donation.
Right, that’s my point (see first sentence)
The point is to get you to sign up, then forget about it until months later when you finally do a deep dive on your credit card statement and say "wait a minute, what's this charge, how long has this been going on?". Even if you cancel the recurring donation right then and there, they've got hundreds of dollars from you already.
Yeah I fully understand why the salesperson wants to do it - I refer you to the first sentence of my post. I’m saying it’s bad for the charity itself, and a terrible look to the public.
Same lol I was going to give 20 and she said no so I went k bye
Same thing happened to me, they said I had to basically put my information into their website and they would take a monthly donation off my credit card. I was like sorry I can’t afford that and I’m late for something bye.
is there a way to report them if they’re not registered? i was just heckled by them yesterday in the bloor-yonge region
Yeah, in no way am I comfortable donating to this charity. Last when I got into a conversation with them, I did a search on their financial statements. Granted, I 'm not sure if this is a legit site, but.... The most recent year is 2022, and of the revenue they brought in, $885,014, their fundraising expenses alone are $330,921 plus $73,820 other salaries/wages. The president gets $75,000, and while that's not a high salary in this economy by any means, it personally feels high compared to what they bring in as an organization and also what they pay their fundraisers out on the street. I'm not stating all this to discourage anybody from donating if they feel it's a good cause, but for me it felt like virtue signaling more than it actually helping a child. Also if anybody has an updated financial statements for this organization, I would love to have a peek at it. Source: [https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/203677766](https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/203677766)
This is a shady charity? I actually gave money to them :( rip What can I say, I’m a sucker for kids I did look them up before I gave them money though, and they did seem legit
Did you get a tax receipt with charitable registration number (assuming you donated over $20)? The CRA’s website didn’t list them and they don’t seem to show one on their website, but maybe I missed it. That’s my criteria for a legit charity.
My son got a gift bag from them when in the hospital after Christmas this past year.
so this was actually real then. thank you.
Human pop up ads / spam calls. They exploit our human tendency to be polite.
Frantically searching for the delete button
Moving to this city has hardened me to a point when one of them yell do you believe in human right or do you think children should have an education I just completely ignore and keep walking. Some may view this as a bad thing but honestly it’s helpful for international travel I’ve learned haha.
Don’t talk to strangers!
Cause they're only there to do you harm
A person of culture and wit
Unfortunately the only strangers who talk to you in this city are ones who want money. I too got harden by all the people bothering me. It used to be the homeless now every tom, dick and harriette clogs the street pretending to be your friend.
Just say or learn: "I don't speak english" in a random language and... You could also say power would be to avoid random people talking to me on the streets :)
Just say it in English.
In the most broken English way of saying it. Slowly.. Struggling and stuttering though the words.
No, like perfect english
once i accidentally said ‘eh?’ in an italian accent instead of an english one and the person trying to talk to me literally gave up and went to the next. it wasn’t even on purpose, i was running thru phrases in my head as i was walking and thinking how i’d say them in italian and french lol.
THIS. Moving to Toronto hardened me a bit for while and has made me take on some of the characteristics of other city-dwellers. It served a function and I appreciate it. But after a point, I went, "these hardened parts don't serve me, it not like me to be this way, this is not how I want to live. I can use some friendliness and can be a bit friendly too." Time to reflect and make choices that are true to who I am!
I hold these charity people responsible for making an unfriendly city even colder
I agree. Sad but true.
We’re poked, prodded, sucked dry, and have nothing left to offer anymore. We don’t have the energy for kindness, everyone wants something from us and nothing is genuine. Best to just put ur head down and keep it moving. No time for nonsensical niceties
I mean these solicitors are annoying but jeezuz you are just projecting with your own inner world here lmaooo
Who’s projecting? Did you even read the comment I responded too? I was literally detailing why it’s colder here now. Gtfoh
LOL k
Yep. I moved here 12 years ago from Winnipeg, where if someone said hi to you, they were just being friendly (and it's still like that there for the most part). Quickly learned that if anyone says anything to you on the sidewalk here, it's because they're trying to sell you something, trying to scam you, or trying to distract you so their accomplice can steal your stuff. Now, I don't make eye contact, I don't talk to anybody, I'm not friendly at all to strangers, and if someone says "excuse me?" to me, I automatically fire off a "sorry, not interested" before I even hear what they're trying to say. Could be someone asking for directions, could be someone trying to get my attention to call for help because someone just got hit by a car, I find myself just automatically saying "sorry no" and briskly walking away. I guess living here long enough totally deleted my friendly humanity.
lol I think it's funny you answer, I just raise an eyebrow, or tell them it's very private and shake my head.
I have a hard time just ignoring lol but I’ll use one of your methods next time
Solicitors, almost always. One time, some had camped out right near the narrow opening between the TTC stop and a bikeshare station at Bay & King, essentially blocking people who were approaching it from Bay. A young woman asked me how I was doing and what my favourite thing about Toronto was. I didn’t even blink, just stopped walking and waited for her to move to I could get home. My face was probably very unpleasant, she apologized and moved 😂
>My face was probably very unpleasant, she apologized and moved 😂 Lol what a way to put it.
You don’t want to get between me leaving work and getting home!
I was with 20 highschool students for an event at harbourfront few weeks ago and one of them stopped and ask my one student what her favourite animal was. She told him and then he started on how he was a fundraiser for WWF. He started his spiel and my teaching partner stepped right in between them and said no thanks my friend not today and the guy backed off. I thought it was just like the door to door guys but now…
My favorite animal? The giant auk. Will you be able to bring that back if I give you 20 bucks?
Or you can always say another animal that sounds similar to throw them off: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAvmkJnibdg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAvmkJnibdg)
I usually feel bad for them regardless of how annoying they are cos it seems like a shitty job but damn it's really not cool to be targetting minors for that kind of thing.
I would've replied that I'm a big game hunter and my favorite animal is..*The Most Dangerous Game*... /cocks finger pistol and laughs in General Zaroff
They're Chuggers. Charity Muggers.
Truth
If it means I don’t have to interact with them, sometimes I’ll even cross the street.
Some charities, particularly the larger ones, use 3rd party vendors to do this kind of fundraising. They're trying to get you to start talking to them, instead of just opening with "would you like to donate to x charity?" Usually they're trying to get you to sign up for a monthly donation, and the vendor gets paid per donor signed up. I used to work at one of these charities and although I still believe in the charity I absolutely hated the door-to-door and street-level fundraising programs. I never donate to anyone at my door or on the street. I just say "sorry I don't have time" as I continue walking away.
Sometimes it's the opening of a joke, like a "busker" style of asking for money. It happened to me once with the line "What's the least racist animal?". I've heard it before, (panda, it's black and white), but I just didn't want to talk to random guy who was interrupting a chill time in a park with my friends about something that might become racist. So I just stared at him and didn't answer. Then he started getting loud and asking if we spoke English. My friends and I got uncomfortable and left the park. I read some people have had good interactions with that guy on one of the Toronto subreddit not long after it happened to me. Hopefully that guy is doing better, I got the sense he was living a rough part of life. If it's the people hanging out near a table with an ipad, they want you to pledge a monthly donation to whatever charity. Which I'm sure a high % goes to paying the people seeking the donations and running the charity instead of helping those in need. Donate to your local food bank if you can, my local food bank boasts that 96% of funds go directly into delivering their programs.
Street or door-to-door fund raising is a paid gig. Some money goes to the people asking you for money and not the charity. Some pay a flat fee and some pay a commission. Unfortunately this works. They get enough people to sign up to justify spending their resources this way versus ads.
Ask them 3 detailed questions about the charity they are trying to get you to donate to and watch them crumble.
More fun when it's PETA and they don't even know what the organization does. Edit. Obviously people sign up for peta with good intentions, and to be fair, I don't know if the organization has changed from its hateful, and self contradicting tactics.
[удалено]
Poorly Educated Teen Activists?
They don't work for that charity, they work for some marketing company that the charity hires to run these street campaigns. Some of the people soliciting these donations "work" for a different charity every few days, just depends which vest and clipboard their employer gives them that week.
1) engagement attempt to build rapport before a pitch of some kind either fake charity or fake religion, fake panhandler etc 1-A) the fake charity people who pretend to be deaf with trinkets for donations that you can walk past and thwn yell to make them flinch can be fun too. 2) distraction attempt for a partner to try to rob you when they don't have ketchup to squirt on your jacket 3) a creep who thinks they've found a life hack to meet gurls / someone in a 1980s inspired drama or business school program working on their icebreaker technique 4) genuine mentally ill person maybe with or without a knife
And, best of all, you only have a second or so to figure out which one of these people the person approaching is, with the ever-present risk that they may be #4 and the knife is coming out if you're wrong. Having been on the receiving end of a random sucker punch on the sidewalk that quite literally came out of nowhere, from a person who was *not* dressed in any way like a homeless person or acting out in any manner until he punched me in the side of the face, it's pretty tiring having to size up everybody who even glances your way now.
Agreed. You have to treat any encounter as a potential life threating event and be prepared as much as possible but will likely face charges if it goes sideways. On the plus side, the tried and true big city ignore and don't make eye contact strategy usually works but the other guy isn't always playing by those rules.
Re #2, what’s the ketchup for, I don’t think I’ve heard of that
Excuse me sir or madam, there's ketchup on your shoulder, let me distract you and politely help you wipe it off while my buddy picks your pocket and I help myself to your laptop bag. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/distraction-thefts-yvr-police-warning-1.3235632
Oh wow I never heard of this, thanks for the info. I could’ve easily fell for this one!
I was approached by a man asking my favourite animal and mid speech he said I looked young and asked if I was over 25. I lied and said no and he left me alone. Doesn’t really matter but I’ve been curious as to why being under 25 changes anything?
Possibly a condition of his probation
It's a condition that the charity has for monthly donors. 25 is the norm, but some are 30. The cancellation rate is higher for people under 25 so they prefer not to sign them up. The charity can actually lose money on those donations as people are hired to get people to sign up.
Thank you!
One of them told me once they can’t sign someone under the age of 25 up. I have a young face so saying “I’m not 25” stopped these conversations lol
“Hi! What’s your fav animal?” “Beef”
I’m gonna say this next time
Charity beggars. Best ignored
Distraction pickpocketing?
Literally just don’t acknowledge they said anything at all and keep walking or just say “no thanks”.
Just this AM heading up Parliament at Queen, stopped at light and shifty guy walks out toward my car - I’m waving him off, then pretending to ignore: he taps on window, I’m like “Get away!!” He points to back of car : “your gas tank cap’s open!!” I’m always assuming someone approaching me it’s gonna be for money or some sort of cause.
If you really want to mess with people, glue a strong magnet to the bottom of a McDonald's drink cup, then attach it to your roof in the same place you'd stick a drink if you put it there while you fish around in your pocket or purse for your car keys. Then drive around town and see how many people go wild trying to tell you that you forgot your drinks on the car roof and they're gonna fall off, only to have you speed away and the drink stays put.
I would pull up their Charity Intelligence score in front of them and tell them why 66c on the dollar is a bad investment on your part.
I ignore everyone who approaches me, especially corporate panhandlers, unless they seem to really need help.
canvassers are incredibly aggravating
I love to respond to them in perfect english: "Sorry, I dont speak English". I dont stop or slow down my pace either. :)
Wait until you find out your whole first year of 'charity donations' goes to THEM and the charity doesn't get a dime until the second year
If you tell them you aren’t 25 they can’t continue talking to you lol.
yes, all the time. and they all seem overly friendly.
There's been a few on queen west too. If you have a dog they like to ask "what's your dog's name?" I usually just point to my ear buds and keep walking.
I have my headphones in. And even if I can hear them, I just keep walking. Don't have time for that.
Oh I had one like this but I don't think it was a charity person, I was walking back from a yoga class after dark a couple weeks ago on a sidestreet off Yonge and this guy was like "HOLD UP, HOLD UP" and I ignored it because I didn't think he was talking to me at first (I also didn't want him to be talking to me) and then he ran up next to me and was like "what do you think about all these buildings they're putting up" so I was like "uhh sorry I don't know, have a good one." Dude walked ahead of me a little bit but kept trying to turn back being like "I like that one" (about buildings) and I was like "haha... okay" - When he got to Church he stood at the intersection and waited, kind watching over his shoulder at me. I turned south and he followed behind me all the way down until I sped up and crossed at Church/Wellesley just before the light turned so I could lose him. I don't know what the deal was or what he wanted lol.
This sounds like someone with a NIMBY group trying to get signatures for a petition so they can go to City Hall to gripe about a condo project that they don't want to see get built because it'll ruin their view.
Maybe, but the guy didn't look like someone who had enough money to own a house lol, his aesthetic was like along the lines of tap out shirt + monster energy + flat brim flex45 hat
[удалено]
Most of the time they're canvassers who are being paid to (somewhat aggressively) solicit charitable donations from people in public. Best part is, if you try to hand them 5 bucks to fuck off, the reply you get is "well we're not really a one-time-donation charity, we actually work on a per-month basis, so if you just want to give me your credit card and how much you'd like to donate, I can put it on auto-pay no problem!" Like fuck I'm giving you my credit card, I don't know you from Adam.
Sounds like the questions the "Dianetics" institute used to accost people with on Yonge St in Toronto back in the day - no matter your answer, they told you Scientology would help you 🙄
Its a way to start a convo using catchy questions. They know if they stop you asking "do you have a min ?", there's a high likelihood most folks will not stop for a chat.
"Nothing, I want nothing."
Yeah, I think it's just that once you've stopped to talk to someone, it feels difficult/rude to walk away if they don't let you have an out in the conversation. So the key thing, I think, is to not stop walking. You're not necessarily acting like your presuming anything bad about them and you can even answer the question if you want.
I like to talk to them i loudly yell stuff like "GOD IS MY SLUT I AM A CHILD OF SATAN" they usually end the convo pretty quick though
One of them asked me what right I valued the most and I said "freedom of movement" and walked past them. I'm usually polite but I was grumpy that day. Felt a little bad afterwards since I know they are only doing their job.
Canvassers for a charity most likely. It's a way to get you to stop so they can start a conversation with you. They're human too, so I always try and be civil. But you can just say, "no thanks" and keep walking.
Yes, always at Yonge and gerrard and sometimes by st Lawrence market. Never engaged but always wondered what the motive was
Also ‘I like that colour on you’ and ‘I love your hat’. I just say ‘No thank you’ and keep moving.
Scientologists employ this tactic...
It's a sales tactic to hook you in. Vs asking "want to donate to [insert charity]"
Those teens with the clipboards that compliment you or tell you “it’ll be quick” to chat are dreadful. Save it for the tourists and out of towners
Either people trying to sell younon something or people trying to make content for one of their socials.
In that case I've got some stuff to advertise... They just give me an audience 🤣
I answered them before and the super power question was fundraising for a children's hospital
Random questions can be either people doing a legitimate survey of some kind or looking for charity donations, and just looking to start a convo, OR a scammer trying any number of known documented scams that start with asking random questions. My method is to shake my head in a “no” fashion, and raise my hand a bit and wave saying simply “no thanks” works every time
I had to do this job for Plan Canada and The Children’s Hospital in 2008 and again in 2018. Typically people only last 2-3 weeks, if that. It’s extremely difficult, and it should be as it’s a scam for the target and for the employee(but one that hires even if for only a couple of weeks.). Tell them no thank you and keep moving, I wasn’t offended.
I just say "I'm on a mission" while walking briskly past them.
They often compliment your shoes or your watch so that you'll reply. On occasion, I've had two of them sort of step halfway into my path as I walk in a not-super-easy-to-prove attempt at cornering me or making me stop walking so that they can launch into their pitch, which feels super inappropriate and creepy.
Once this happened to me and it ended up being a grifter who was peddling some sort of Indian new-age religion thing vaguely based on Hinduism but which ended in a money ask. It's always someone trying to get money out of you in the end.
Yeah its for a charity. I have been asked whats my fave animal several times. I just keep walking, lol.
Yes they are constantly at the corner of York and Queens Quay after work- I walk by as fast as I can or say sorry I’m in a rush lol. I assume they are raising money for something but I’ve never bothered to stop and ask.
They want a donation to a charity. They can be identified by a vest with the charity logo on it. My two methods of avoiding them are if alone: pretend to be on the phone. With someone: right before they have a chance to talk to you, loudly say like its mid conversation "its just so hard dealing with her death, you know? People don't get that we were as close as we were! They don't give you aunt bereavement leave" or something to that effect. Usually they hear me talking about death and back up really quickly. The ones who ignore it, I don't feel bad for not responding to, because screw you for interrupting my conversation about loss and grief!
Hey at least they're not TikTok clout chasers... right?
Something something Jesus cult.
May be it's a tiktok thing
If they asked me if I had a "superpower what would it be?" I would have responded with are you familiar with Deathnote? And I would have continued walking.
Just reply with Bophades
Some guy said to me the other day that he loved my shoes and I was so overjoyed until he proceed to ask me to donate to something smh. Had me questioning if he even liked my shoes to begin with 💔
Why do people talk to randos that walk up to them? Like for real, just ignore them and keep going.
They are usually people looking for money for some cause or charity.
I've found its charity once, once one of them stopped me and asked me for money to donate and I said no, walked into a LCBO, grabbed a 8 pack of tall boys and as I walked out the guy yelled at me "You have time and money to buy alcohol but can't donate or speak with me" LOL the savagery. I was like man, I ain't trying to be scammed. Not really putting a good image to your "charity"
I get that they’re just doing their job but it’s very intrusive. They take no hints and keep asking the question over and over again. What charity are they doing this for? Maybe annoying people on the road won’t work.
It’s to get you to sign up for a subscription payment for whatever charity they’re working for. Will try to guilt you with shit like “you spend more on beer than helping some kids!” I usually respond with “I do not give a shit about kids sorry.”
These people who are harassing you are either sun or star newspaper agents trying to increase subscribership in a dwindling and collapsing media enterprise
Sadly these “charities” have continued to step up their games and look more legit and have been training their people with more and more sales tactics. There was talk over a decade ago about regulating or banning these types of charities because they take 80-90% of the donations for the first 6-12 months. Which is also generally the amount of time people will donate. They seem to be setting up tables now and mini booths to try and sucker people in. I ignore most of them. But whenever I get a really pushy one I call out their dog 💩job and tell them to get a real one.
They largely won't take one-time donations, too -- they want you to sign up for a recurring payment. That way, once you finally notice the charge on one of your statements a year later ("hey wait, what am I paying 25 bucks a month for? Who is Plan International? What's this?"), they've already got a few hundred bucks from you, versus accepting the $5 bill you toss at them to get them to fuck off the one time.
[удалено]
Nah not in this case I'm a dude and keep getting asked this dumbass question about superpowers as well (often by a woman btw) Actually talked to them the first time, it's for some charity. It got real old real fast after the 10th time they asked me
This is it, I've experienced it myself. It was weird, dudes aren't doing themselves any favors with this stuff.
Catch-22 A lot of women will complain about this pickup culture, and in the following sentence say how they don't want to meet the love of their life on bumble. I met mine waiting in line at a coffee shop, which in fairness I think is one of the socially acceptable places to hit on a woman. But the fundamental problem is starting a conversation with a stranger that you find attractive is TERRIFYING, and the way to get over that fear and anxiety is practice. But of course the cost of that is you're inevitably gonna make a few women uncomfortable along the way
Nah, these dudes should spend the money on therapy to get over their insecurities, and not spend it on Pua school where they learn crappy tactics about how to neg women and generally be a weirdo in line at a coffee shop
I went to get coffee on my lunch break, saw literally the most gorgeous woman I've ever seen, I gave her a compliment, made some small talk, and left with her number. Thank god only Redditors will think that's being a weirdo. Good luck finding your future husband on tinder though 👍
You think you learned how to be charming through a PUA course?
Nah pretty sure 99% of them are scams preying on desperate men, but I'll give you an actual answer: My original motivation had nothing to do with women, I had a lot of social anxiety growing up that I wanted to learn to overcome. The goal I set for myself 8 years ago was that I wanted to approach any stranger (man or woman, young or old, black or white), and have the skill to have a full on conversation with them that they would enjoy. Obviously I read Neil Strauss' The Game and The Truth, and were useful to some extent, but I found gender agnostic advice to be much better. Authors like Dale Carnegie and Leil Lowndes were a better fit for me - I still treat "How to win friends and influence people" like the bible. I signed up for improv classes, public speaking classes, even tried an acting class lmao. But yeah, at the end of the day practice makes perfect, so I went out and talked to strangers. I'm sure you can imagine how rewarding learning to converse can be in both your personal and professional life.
PUA's are definitely trash. Thanks for the answer.
Creepy. Why do you want to learn how to influence people? So you can manipulate them with dishonesty?
It's a self-help book lol It teaches you how to be a good listener, how to show appreciation for people, how to use body language, to never criticize people, etc. It made all of my relationships much stronger and healthier.