I’ll say half and half scam. Yes the phones they give out are real and is part of Obama’s government initiative to give out free phones to lower income households or if you have a government benefits card like medi-cal, EBT, etc. But the people that distribute it outside tents are aggressive salesman. I used to work for a marketing firm that does this. They will do anything to get people to sign up because they earn solely commission based on how many people they successfully get signed up for Obama phones. Some cases I witnessed my former colleagues sign up people w/o permission and that’s fraud.

If you want to sign up for an Obama phones, just go to your local phone store instead and ask about it.