Veteran Gift Bag Scam Comes to San Diego County

Something for Soldiers Sales LLA is based out of Georgia and offers to send gift bags to soldiers overseas

Solicitors for a questionable for-profit group have been spotted all over San Diego--from Encinitas to Chula vista, even in the east county.

The company is called Something for Soldiers Sales LLC and it's based out of Georgia. It's a for-profit company but many wouldn't know that unless you really look at the fine print.

Employees travel all over the country, moving from city to city after they are exposed on social media.

Wayne, who did not want to disclose his last name, lives in Lakeside and retired last year after serving 20 years in the military. He said he is always looking for ways to give back to soldiers overseas, but a recent encounter completely turned him off.

"The whole interaction was really awkward, rehearsed and staged for me," he said. He told NBC 7 that last week a worker from Something for Soldiers Sales LLC came knocking on his door and asked for a donation for gift bags to send overseas.

"He actually had pricing schedules for sponsorship levels, $24 all the way up to $200--$24 would send one care package out," he said.

NBC 7 spoke with a former employee of the company who says he's seen the group bring in up to $14,000 a day going door-to-door. He added only three to five percent of the funds raised actually go to care packages. Workers get a commission of about 50 percent on the amount they bring in, something that made sense to Wayne after his conversation.

"At the end, he was like, 'Well could you at least give me some money for my time out here speaking to you?' I was like, 'no you've got to be kidding me!'" Wayne told NBC 7.

Warnings are posted all over social media, including one from Weber County Sheriff's Office in Utah. There's even a "Something for Soldiers Sales is a Scam" Facebook page.

"I think it's very disgraceful that people or organizations would go around on the sole purpose of using our military, our veterans; anyone who has served as a platform to get money," Wayne said.

NBC 7 reached out to the company to get information on how much money is actually going towards helping soldiers overseas. They told us the company's president would have to disclose that and he would call us back. As of Friday evening, we had not heard back from him.

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