I have had it with people ringing my doorbell and asking for money!

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Does this ever happen where you live, and if so how do you handle it? We don't have a peep hole, so short of opening the door, we have no idea in advance who it is going to be on the other side of the door. The incident I had last night really upset me and makes me think our little village just isn't the same anymore. This NEVER used to happen, but lately we have been getting people ringing the bell and straight out asking for money. We live in a small town, and it isn't locals doing it, but people you have never seen before. I have had people come to the door who don't speak English and hand me a paper saying they need money. These people aren't selling anything, just blatantly begging. Once you have opened the door, short of shutting it in their face, it is really hard to get them to leave. The woman that came by last night, at 9 PM no less, took the cake! It tok nearly twenty minutes to get rid of her. At first, I thought she had a car problem, or was locked out of her house and was very sympathetic. She had a little girl with her, who was maybe about three and they were both well dressed and clean. She was a foreign national, about forty but spoke very good English. My first instinct was to help her because something had obviously happened and she was very shaken up. She asked if she could come in, and foolish me I was on the verge of making her a cup of tea and trying to get her to calm down! Once she was inside she was talking a mile a minute about her brother having died of motor neuron disease, something having happened to her mother, her father, who she said lived across the street and down the road had Alzheimer's and she was caring for him and then he broke his hip, then he got sicker...he was now in the hospital. She was a single parent and didn't know what to do, and on and on and on she went. At this point I was preparing myself to offer to watch her children so she could take care of her family, but no, she wanted cash! She finished up with her sister was stuck in Milan and she needed 70 euro to get her over here to help her. She even told me we could Western Union it to her. At this point, she had made enough comments in her story that didn't quite ring true and I was wondering how I was going to get her out of the house. We were still in the front room by the door and my oldest child was also in the room. I told her I couldn't giver her any money, and directed her to our local charitable organization which I knew to still be open. She kept pushing it, acting very desperate, regiving her father's address and offering to show me ID, and I said, "Look, I don't know you. You say your dad knows us, but I don't know him. I don't have the money, sorry." She left, but I was left feeling yucky the rest of the evening and half afraid she might come back. I rodered everyone upstairs and turned off the lights downstairs. This morning we looked at the house she was saying her dad lived in and it was a totally different house number than she said, which was what we suspected. It is too small of a town for her story to have been true and us not known about any of it. It is also the sort of town where you DO help people and you DON'T have to lock your doors. I think the town is growing and because of that, it is also changing. I will never let another stranger in the house after last night's event, and now don't even want to open the bloody door. If the dogs were barking I used to half ignore them but now I am going and checking to make sure everything is, "all right". Does this sort of thing happen where you live? Has your town changed like this? What would you do besides install a peep hole? I already have two large dogs, but I miss the sense of trust and openess that seems to be evporating here. Sorry it is such a novel. My husband says I am silly for thinking we need to start locking our doors all the time, but I don't think having dogs is enough anymore.