While the specific stories of this urban legend are just myths, there is a chilling undertone of truth to it, since home invaders have been documented using tactics similar to this to get into people's homes. According to the stories that have circulated, someone is home alone late at night with very few lights on—just enough to indicate that someone is home and awake, but that there aren't many people around. Someone comes up and, in the dead of night, just starts banging on the door and yelling to be let in. When the homeowner gets close to the door and calls out, the calls become even more insistent, yelling that someone is trying to hurt them.
In one story, a woman was at home by herself when she heard a woman banging on her door and shouting to be let inside the house. When she asked who it was, the woman outside began yelling that she was being attacked by a man and needed to get somewhere safe. When the homeowner listened closely, she indeed heard a male voice, but he was talking normally as if he was simply having a conversation with the woman. The woman outside was covering the peephole, so the homeowner peeked out the window beside the door. She could see a woman dressed in black, and from somewhere nearby, the man's voice continued to talk softly to the woman. Eventually they both left, but it left the storyteller chilled to the bone. It's hard to imagine what would have happened if she had let them in, but it probably wouldn't have been pleasant.