Do you buy paintings at your door? Are you sure it's not a scam? Have you had a scammer visit you? In the last two weeks they've been at our door trying hard to win our savings. Water purification plants and oil paintings for sale, two of the present scams catching people all over this country.

Two nights ago a door bell ring had a youngish woman with an artist bag of oil paintings for sale. The first reaction was how nice they were and the variety of subjects. Small illegible lines for signatures of the artists tweaked my mind, as I've a collection by local artists, that over the years, I've purchased. They were not afraid to sign with gusto, if anything they signed with pride.

Now this is not my house we're in, but my daughter showed an interest in purchasing. She invited the woman into the house and held certain pictures against the wall to see if what she liked would fit the present theme. Not being our house, Linda and I never gave our opinion, in any case art is a personal preference and tastes differ. Her husband not being home from work, stopped any immediate thought of buying and a business card asked for could not be met, but a phone number given.

When home from work, her husband smelt the rat, no business card, no studio, art from door-to-door studios. His first reaction was to Google it and social networks gave the warnings, this was not illegal, but it was a scam of cheaply produced paintings. Hundreds that sit daily, turning out or mass producing paintings, purchased by some for a pittance and then sold to the public for an exorbitant price. Is this a scam, manipulation of cheap labour, or a good business deal? The words of “artist commission” as the biggest part of the cost, a scam. This is manipulation of cheap labour, taking advantage of good artists that cannot get exposure and selling for huge gains by those that don't really need it.

The other visitor easily seen for what he was, a scam artist. A man who approached with the story he wanted to check our water quality, picked on the wrong house to try it. His request for a glass of water from the tap, then using electrolysis, to prove the water not as good as theirs from their filter system. Naturally any water sanitized by a local authority has chlorine, lime and other products in it to make it safe for human consumption. When this water treated by electrolysis, it produces ions and rusts iron particles in the water, it will now looks dirty. Their water that is merely distilled water, when like-wise treated, shows clear, why because it's purified before testing.

Try this at any other house but not this one. I'm a Green Keeper, a specialist in grasses and applications to grass and water testing and understanding of its elements. You can't pull the wool over my eyes when it comes to my speciality.