Collection for magazine subscription I didn't order
Complaint
smlongiotti
Country: United States
Sunrise Credit Services, Inc. sent me a collection notice for $22 for Veranda magazine, a subscription I have not even ordered and WILL NEVER order because of this notice. I sent the info to the Consumer Complaints Division of the NC Secretary of State Office to see if they could help.
Comments
He tells me it is for an "O" magazine subscription. I told him I never ordered this magazine. He than puts me on hold to speak to a supervisor. Than he returns and said the subscription was for "Elle" magazine. I said but you just mentioned earlier that it was for "O" magazine. At this point he said if you never ordered it I will cancel this credit collection. Which he does. Next I asked for his street address so I could report him to the N.Y. Attorney Generals office. After going back and forth with his supervisor he gives me this address:
Sunrise Credit Services
260 Airport Plaza
Farmingdale, NY
11735-9100
Yes I agree with those above. These are a group of scumbags just looking to make a few dollars off of those who do not challenge these collection notices.
They wont get anything from me!
A lot of people must just cough up.
I have the same problem too, sunrise agency is collecting debt on behalf of housekeeping magazine. Can they actually collect the debt or post the money owed on my SSS if they #
1. Do not have my SS number
2. Do not have a credit card number from me.
I am just planning to disregard this notice.
Please your input will be helpful.
Sunrise tries to straddle the fence between being a collection agency and a magazine marketer, in effect using their letters that imply this is a collection attempt to coerce people to renew or subscribe after trying some free sample magazine. Anyone could have signed you up, as they don't get any identity information that could determine whether it was you that requested the sample.
It's a deceptive trade practice, particularly when sent to people who may never even have requested a free sample, but they generally back down when challenged. They don't generally ship more magazines until they are paid for the subscription, and you don't owe them if you didn't agree to subscribe, for magazines you haven't ordered or received.
Just send a letter to the publisher notifying them that you did not subscribe to this magazine.
Send a similar letter to Sunrise, also notifying them that you did not subscribe, and that you dispute and demand proof of any alleged debt. Mail it certified. That invokes the FDCPA prohibition against continued collection without verifying the debt, and gives you some basis for a lawsuit should they continue to harass you.
Some of them actually do fake "subscriptions" by tossing a few cheap ones in the mail, then try to "upsell" the victim with more subscriptions followed by a "bait and switch" to a "mulit-year contract" shakedown, or just con a $400 to $600 "termination fee" to get out of the phony "contract". You might as well call this the "Buffalo magazine scam".
They typically prey on unsophisticated consumers, particularly kids out of high school or college students, the poor, and the elderly. You can even buy "sucker lists" collected from such demographic groups to better target your scam.
There are quite a few of these fraudulent magazine subscription cramming scams allied with equally fraudulent debt collectors. In particular, there are such scams operating out of the Buffalo area, around Atlanta GA, near Denver CO, and an overseas magazine cramming shakedown racket operating out of Mumbai India.
FTC recently reached a $3.1 million settlement with one of these debt collectors caught collecting on fraudulent "magazine subscriptions".
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2012/05/luebkenr.shtm