When I went to college a while ago, I had several run-ins with young college age people who tried very persistently to get me to buy magazine subscriptions (usually FHM, Maxim type mags) as part of a fundraising drive to finance their trip to London (always London and connected to the BBC). I shooed them off, and later heard in the local media this was part of a scam run by some college students from another town.
Just the other day a young woman rang my doorbell and basically gave me the same pitch. I told her I wasn’t buying it and sure enough I have just heard a warning on the local news warning against this very thing.
I know that magazine subscription scams are nothing new, and everyone has seen one at some point. What has me curious is that this particular offer with the same details keeps popping up over and over. Is there some half-legitimate business that does this? Or do people just borrow ideas from each other.
What’s funny is with the last pitch, I could complete her sentences…which perhaps convinced her to get lost quite quickly.
I don’t know if it is related, but I keep getting odd phone calls from people identifying themselves as representatives of consumer magazines, thanking me for my participation in their past surveys (ummm, what surveys?) and could they send me some gifts? (usually vouchers for a large store, but sometimes liquor or electronics). Obviously to save me embarrasment at work, they would like to send them to my home address… “you don’t want us to have your home address?, OK, no problem, we’ll send them to your place of work”. Of course the gifts never materialise, but is this just a simple ruse to get my home address for junk mailing lists, or something bigger? I keep meaning to probe them a little more for information, but they invariably call at a really busy moment.
I had a friend who worked for ICS. When you mailed in your address for information the information arrived with a commissioned sales person presenting it. ICS had determined that most folks needed a live sales job to help 'em make up their minds.
At least in the ICS case the victim had actually shown an interest in the product and had taken the time to fill out a form and mail it.
You have done none of the above and the folks on the other end of the phone are (apparantly) trying to scam your home address. Junk mail might be the least of your worries.
In addition if they really do have some coupons to hand over to you should they come to your door be careful before you use them. If you activate those coupons you may suddenly discover you’ve developed a “business relationship” with that company and all of its affiliates. Of course, if you have a business relationship with a company they can call you up and inform you of their latest products. Your listing on any Do Not Call list is invalid.
I’ve ordered twice from kids using the same pitch. Once at my home and once just out on the street. I’ve always gotten all my subscriptions (one in fact for several years after the subscription length.) What’s supposed to be the scam? That they’re not using the money for a trip? Pffft! Who cares?
I’m very familiar with this scam. It’s been going on for years in the US and the company is based out of Texas. The set-up is always very similar. They need “fifty more point to win a trip to London” or “twenty more points to win a trip to New York” or somesuch. You’re supposed to help them win the contest but not help their (imaginary) competitor who may be coming by next.
Some people get their subscritions and others don’t. I don’t remember the exact way they get away with it but the fine print has to do with it being a contest where you might win the subscription. As I recall, 40% of the people get their magazines.
I see, sounds like I just got lucky a couple times. I will say that I’ve ordered magazines directly from the publishers before and not gotten them, or gotten them only sporadicly. I’d say this is more a postal issue (or just a badly run business) than any sort of organized scam though.
voguevixen I call it a scam because it has been identified by the media and police as a scam, with warnings to report these people to the police. I was wondering whether there were legitimate businesses that did this, since the sales pitch is always the same. I am sure some people do this for an honest living or to win prizes too.
It must be a Texas/Southwest thing.
Doug Bowe Are you the Doug Bowe, from 92.3FM? (Check my location!)
I have to deal with these people once a year or so.
Yes, it’s a Texas/Southwest kind of thing. Basically, you sign up for a sales trip, and they bus you all over the southwest, and you get paid at the end of the trip, based on how many subscriptions you sold, minus the cost of taking care of you.
Naturally, if you give these people any kind of cash, you’ll never get your magazines. Or, for that matter, if they figure out how to cash your checks.
The “collecting points for a trip to X” is one of the standard speeches they teach these kids. Another one is “I’m in a contest to meet X number of people…” and the way they prove it is by selling you magazines.
I’ve long since quit even trying to be reasonable with them. The smart ones immediately take the hint when I explain that I do not buy magazines from door to door salesmen. The stupid ones claim they aren’t selling magazines, they’re engaged in a CONTEST, and…
…and then I yell at them when they try to get me to buy magazines.
I’ve seen them in L.A. and San Diego but never in Santa Barbara. I wasn’t aware it was only regional. I called the cops on them many a time when those scum would skulk around my college campus.
I’ve seen them in upstate NY, too, pretty much every summer. It’s not strictly a regional thing. I’m sure there are folks who legitimately sell magazines door-to-door, but this seems like one of the classic scams to me. I also know from first hand experience that this is often a ruse to gain entry into your residence to commit a burglary. Happened to an elderly neighbor about ten years ago.
I can’t speak to the scammers (other than to know they exist).
But I do hereby attest that there are many many legitimate firms selling magazines through school (and the cute kids that inhabit them).
I currently have contracts with about 10 or so firms that do that. They provide catalogs, order forms, etc to the schools. The kids sell the subs at full price. The schools get (no kidding) about 5%, the magazine gets (no kidding) about 15-20% (and only get that if they push), the school plan firm gets the remaining 75% of the first years revenue.
It’s a loss leader for magazines. The hope is that even though we take a loss first year the new business will renew at a high enough rate to make the initial loss worthwhile as we recoup the investment over time.
