When I worked for the local paper back in the late 80's we did a story on the different scams that were going on at the time in my city. Here are a couple I remember.
1- The van pulls up beside you and tells you they were delivering furniture, speakers, whatever, and they had some extra stuff on the truck, so they are trying to sell it. In the case of the speaker scam, you ended up with crappy speakers, or a box of bricks.
2- The magazine subscription scam. They hit a neighborhood, usually one with elderly people, and sell subscriptions to raise money for college / scholarships. The only problem was there were no magazines.
3- Then there were the usual home repair scams. We would have groups of people come through who would prey on the elderly, telling them their houses needed new roofs, painting, or other things.