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Synchronized Subscription Scams

Three envelopes arrived in the same mailing, all bearing the same return address across the back:

PublishersPayment - Three Return Addresses
PublishersPayment – Three Return Addresses

By now, I know what’s inside the envelopes and simply toss them in the recycling, but getting three at once seemed worth investigating. Inside, they’re not quite identical:

 

PublishersPayment - Three Renewal Scams
PublishersPayment – Three Renewal Scams

So SBS, PDS, and PBC are all snuggly in White City, Oregon, with LBS somewhere just offstage…

Apparently enough people miss the warning on the back to justify the expense of the junk mailings.

It’s nice work for someone with absolutely no ethics whatsoever. At least they’re not phoning us, so maybe they’re not complete asshats…

Comments

4 responses to “Synchronized Subscription Scams”

  1. Red County Pete Avatar
    Red County Pete

    I got curious (we go through White City on our shopping trips to Costco) and looked them up. The Nation magazine is pretty ticked at them (the scammers charge $99.99 for a $30 subscription…), and they’ve identified 22 aliases. For the OR mail, they suggest contacting the Attorney General, though they’re out of date on who has the position. It’s now Ellen F. Rosenblum. Further complicating things, the scum originally worked out of Reno, Nevada. Not sure if they are still active there.

    The only mag we get now is Home Shop Machinist, and that must be too tiny to work for the scammers. Village Press might not share addresses widely, with most of the tool supply outfits no longer sending anything.

    1. Ed Avatar
      Ed

      Judging from The Nation’s website, they’re really annoyed… can’t hardly blame them.

      But they also say these folks run their telemarketing campaigns: “Public Interest Communications, a prominent and reputable telemarketing firm”. How do they make their voice do that?

  2. Red County Pete Avatar
    Red County Pete

    How do they make their voice do that?

    Telephone filter, as I recall. I hope yours was a Firesign Theater reference. I don’t have the original LP with Nick Danger, but it infested influenced my speech patterns through college. The motherlode is the BBC Goon show, though.

    I saw the bit on the telemarketer, but the glorious oxymoron didn’t strike me. OTOH, I know a couple of people who could have been cast for Portlandia.

    1. Ed Avatar
      Ed

      Telephone filter, as I recall.

      Or you put your fingers on the tape flange Just So. Something like that, anyway. Infested my speech patterns, yes they did…