# Have you been scammed?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-been-scammed/485115>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [February 9, 2009, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-been-scammed/485115 "2009-02-09T19:10:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Arglefraster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3bc359/32.png) [@Arglefraster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arglefraster)\
**Post date:** [February 11, 2009, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-been-scammed/485115/61 "2009-02-11T14:04:06Z")

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I once fell for the opposite of the “order magazines you never get” scam. I got a phone call telling me if I participated in a short survey, I could get a free magazine subscription. I didn’t have anything better to do at the time, so I said sure. She asked me a few questions about my grocery shopping habits, then I picked out my free magazine subscription.

Then she said I “qualified” for a special deal where I could get two more magazine subscription for about the quarter of the price of one. That’s a pretty good deal, I thought, so I picked out two more magazine subscriptions.

Then there were more deals! And more magazines! She talked very very fast, and each deal was very small, and I just didn’t notice how much it was adding up. Then the magazines started showing up. Oh, so many magazines. Then the bill showed up. I don’t remember exactly how much it was, but it was way more than I had as a jobless, dorm-living college student. There was the option, of course, to pay it in monthly installments with a rediculously high interest rate tacked on.

There was a 1-800 customer service number on the bill, so I called it in a panic, and tried to cancel my subscriptions. They said that I could only cancel within the first 30 days. Of course the bill didn’t show up until after those 30 days were up. They said that I was told this in the initial phone call. I don’t remember her saying anything about a 30 day cancellation policy, but she talked so fast I may have missed it. I told them I never signed anything, and they said I had a “verbal contract” and they could sue me for the money. I paid the money (in monthly installments with the rediculous interest rate) because I didn’t want to get sued.

I’m pretty sure this company’s practice was technically legal. At least, I did agree over the phone to the subscriptions, and I did get the magazines I ordered. And I’m not a lawyer, but from what I later looked up about verbal contracts, if they recorded the phone call it would probably stand up in court. Still pretty shady, though, and I still feel like an idiot for falling for it.

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