scam!
Complaint
Patrick Jernigan
Country: United States
I recently received a phone call from 1-888-279-9221 and also 1-877-855-4547 that told me I had won a $1000 online shopping spree. All I had to do was answer a few questions; little did I know the questions were about my bank account information. Beware, everyone, if you get a phone call from this number(s). It is a scam. After doing some research on the company, I discovered that they use your bank account information to rob you. The report I read was written by a woman who had the same experience with this company. She was told that she would receive magazines in the mail. She received no magazines but money was still withdrawn from her account.
For those that get a phone call from this number, DO NOT answer.
For those that get a phone call from this number, DO NOT answer.
Comments
866-394-9153, and some other numbers and they won't stop calling me. I am someone who don't pick up the phone if Idk the number. I just gave in and answered the phone today and a woman was on the line and said she was new at this. She told me that I was selected to win a $1000 online shopping spree and asked if we owned a debit card and how we paid the bills. Of course, they didn't ask me for the debit card number. I wouldn't give it to them anyway.. They asked a few questions. I didn't give out any info about myself all they said was I would get some magazine's and the card in the mail. They'd ship it out in 3-5 business days and I would have to pay a small fee of $3.85/mo. Which, I am NOT going to anyways. Well, the girl said she was going to transfer me to her boss but he was tied up on a phone call and that she was gunna have him/her call me back as soon as they got off and that he/she called me back exactly 20 mins later and been blowing my phone up. I read this and googled them and found that they were a scam. So, I recommend you not falling for this. Words can be deceiving and I believe this. The woman also said she was new and that their are some people who are gunna be checking up on her and to give a good word about her. Which, I will not!!! If there is one thing I hate most. That would be scammers. I have a 1 yr. old daughter to worry about. So, I don't need to be in any part of this. I can't waste my money on something that is a scam and I heard their are dollar store prod. on the site. If I wanted something from the dollar store I'd buy it for cheap at the dollar store. But, will not. Like, I said I have a daughter to think about who turns a yr. in 6 days. Well, Ms. Sue you are so dumb to even defend these ppl and let alone be apart of their scam.. Anyway I highly recommend above all to not answer your phones to telemarketers.. If it is to good to be true than It probably is. I wouldn't believe it again
Thank You
Claiming there are additional terms after you have already signed up, such as "no cancellation" that was not disclosed before you agreed, is deceptive and fraudulent. It violates the FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule.
They set out from the beginning to pull this con, long before you came along.
$853 paid to the actual publishers, at a typical publisher price of about $15 per magazine per year, would buy you 19 magazines a month for 3 years. No one would accept their scam offer if they actually disclosed it truthfully, without deception. They are just using a "magazine subscription" pitch as a con to extort settlements for "cancelling".
Block the money and file fraud complaints with FTC, your state Attorney General, and the Georgia Attorney General.
$853? $269? "over a thousand"?
Every time you talk to them, it can be a different amount. They will raise the amount to threaten you, then lower the amount to try to "close" and get money. Nothing in writing anywhere, no "contract" you could hold them to, although they might claim you "agreed" or that they have some "recording", probably doctored, or missing the originally disclosed terms. They are just making up numbers to get you to "settle" and pay them off. That's not a "conntract", it's a "shake-down" racket.
As for Credit and Collections Solutions, it appears they specialize in providing "services" to the magazine subscription scam "industry".
http://www.avvo.com/legal-answers/possibly-bo ... inc--11497.html
"Possibly Bogus: Credit & Collection Solutions Inc. Great Falls, MT
Groton, NY Viewed 693 times. Posted about 1 year ago in Debt Collection
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A couple years ago I received a phone call offering a free trial to a magazine service. Then I started to pay for their services. Long story short, I noticed I was getting charged tons of money out of my checking account from 3 or 4 different services. When I called the numbers listed on my statement I was told I could not cancel because they had a tape recorded verbal agreement from me agreeing to renew for several more years. They would not play the tape for me. I told these companies on several occasions to stop sending magazines, calling my home and work, and taking money from my account. They kept doing it saying I was locked into an agreement, so a few months ago I cancelled my account so they could no longer withdrawal money. I then started geting several phone calls demanding that I pay the past due amounts. I told my story several times and they would not listen, saying they had this so called tape recording. Monday I received a notice in the mail from Credit & Collection Solutions Inc. from Great Falls, Mt. They say they have been contracted to collect a debt in the amount of $737.25 from a compnay in Shawnee, KS called Publishers Renewal Service. The letter says they will take all legal action and send it to litigations, it says I have 30 days to respond. Then they called me at my work yesterday demanding payment and they said if I dont call them with payment information in 24 hours they are turning it over to litigations. After searching for hours online, I cant even find information that this company even exists. Infact the notice they sent even has typos. But I did find several situations like mine. When I search for these companies that have been charging me, Magazine Services of America, Readers Source, Publishers Renewal Service, and this Credit & Collection Solutions Inc. the only things I find are other people with the same exact stories on Rip-Off report.com and other complaint boards. Can they really take me to court over a so called phone call? I know I never agreed to anything like they are saying, and one company says I agreed to open 2 different accounts with them, one of them has my name totally spelled wrong, I never agreed to any of this. What do I do? I cant afford to pay them this money, who in thier right mind would pay that much for magazines I never ordered?"
Links to additional complaints:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100308163856AAtgo2J
What you are describing is the common pattern of fraud and deception used in this type of scam, and common with fraudulent telemarketing: make some offer that sounds competitive, maybe even throw in some "gift" to get the consumer to say they agree, get their payment information and create the appearance of a contract by shipping a few magazines, then claim the agreement is something different than originally offered, using threats (credit damage, collection agencies, etc.) to coeerce payment on different inflated terms.
Or, once they have your payment information, they either just cram charges, or "reload" by calling again with other offers, often deceptively leading you to believe they are describing the combined subscription when they are now billing as an additional subscription.
Alternatively, they start alleging the inflated terms, then make sure the magazine deliveries are sporadic. Maybe they are just dropping them in the mail themselves, as a prop in this con, and have never actually set up a subscription with the publisher. When the consumer balks at paying for something they aren't even receiving, they assert their claim to have a "contract", demand full payment (on unshipped product, at that), pass the "account" off to a "collection agency", who engages in abusive and harassing calls, but finally "agrees" to lower the payment "to cancel the contract". They have then gotten paid hundreds of dollars, basically for doing nothing but making threats.
Nothing is ever put in writing up front, and that is deliberate. Without anything in writing, they can claim whatever they want at a later date, claim to have a recording (that they never produce, or that they edit), claim the magazines you ordered were different, claim the subscription term is different, claim the cancellation terms are different, claim you "automatically renewed" several years down the road, etc.
Those are several of the common patterns. The main differences you find among this class of scammers is the degree to which they are willing to go over the line, and where they will back down. Some are more threatening, while others demand the same inflated payments, just more politely.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract
Basic elements of a contract:
1) Offer (disclosure of terms by one party),
2) meeting of the minds (intent by both parties to reach an agreement, on the same agreed terms),
3) acceptance (accepting party agrees to and accepts the same terms as the offering party offered),
4) consideration (must involve something of value exchanged. If I promise to do something for you for free, it's not generally binding since you didn't give me something in return as consideration).
You would think that for supposedly an alleged $700 to as much as $2400 these companies would dot their i's and cross their t's, putting the terms in writing and getting your signature on the contract, but they never do. You would think they would at least mail the terms of the agreement after the sale, as they often claim, but again, they never do. They only assert their absurd terms several months into the supposed contract, and after payments have already been made.
Why is that?
No one in their right mind would agree to buy $2400 in magazines through an "uncancellable" contract, often paid mostly up front, with an unknown company who just called them on the phone, if all the terms they ultimately allege were actually disclosed up front, or better yet, put down in writing.
That is why the terms of the "offer" disclosed aren't anything like what they later claim. The sales pitch "terms" are to get the consumer to say they agree, and have no other relationship with the later alleged "contract", except maybe several similar digits in the numbers that can be used to claim the consumer "forgot" what they agreed to. Maybe they even record the consumer "agreeing", but often when that "recording" is later produced, the script is magically different.
Magazine subscriptions bought directly from the typical magazine publisher (Hearst, Conde Nast, etc.) cost only about $10 to $18 per year, typically $15 per year. Some 2 or 3 year publisher subscriptions are even cheaper per year. You can buy about 160 magazine-years for $2400, an amount reportedly demanded by some of these scams. That is 32 magazines each month for FIVE YEARS, a common period some of these scams claim consumers "agreed" to.
Does ANYONE read 32 magazines each month, every month? Would anyone want to? Of course not, and these scams don't claim they will deliver anywhere near that many at what they claim is their "very competitive" prices.
These scams claim they have such a good deal, even "better than publisher's prices", but none of them are offering 32 magazines a month, so the prices of their coerced scam deals are at MANY TIMES the price directly from the publishers, even far above store prices.
The claims are laughable, if the behavior wasn't so abusive.
i sent the owner this email i wrote and about 2 business days later my account was canceled and paid in full please feel free to copy and paste the letter i wrote to this email it is
Jack McCabe <readingamerica@gmail.com
the best thing to do is send their owner an email saying this
To whom it may concern:
I and other of my family members have been recieving harassing collection calls regarding and account with your company in my name. I did not recieve what was offered by your company and want this account to be cancelled immediately, all collection attempts ceased, and my good credit standing left unblemished. Be aware a complaint has been filed with my State's Attorney General's office detailing your failure to perform and the illegal collection attempts you have employed. I and other members of my family have kept a detailed log and phone records of your illegal activity. You will cease and desist all collection attempts and cancel this account immediately.
a trial membership. It wasn't, they won't let me cancel & keep sending
me bills adding 15 for late fees. They then told me I had 3 days to cancel,
the magazines didn't arrive for 3 weeks, how could I try them in 3 days?
What can I do?
File fraud complaints with FTC, your state Attorney General, and the Georgia Attorney General.
Contact your Attorney General.
Report all crime.