My wife has a subscription to Vanity Fair magazine, which I happen to like to read, too. Funny thing is, we keep getting these notices from National Publication Billing Services with offers to up our subscription, even though our subscription isn’t scheduled to expire until December of 2011! That’s just before the world is going to end in 2012, so why would anyone want to up their subscription beyond that?! Here’s what the notice looks like:
Admittedly, we fell for this scam several times in the past. That’s why we now have a subscription that doesn’t expire until 2011. About 10 years ago, before we were aware of what was going on, we automatically assumed that this notice meant our subscription was soon due to expire, so we dutifully wrote a check and sent it in.
One day (yes, I’m a little slow on the uptake), I realized that I had upped our subscription about five times in less than a year. I called the magazine, and they informed me that our subscription wouldn’t expire for another decade. They said all I had to do was look on the mailing label when I received the next copy of the magazine to find the expiration date for our subscription. Well, duh me.
The next issue we received, I checked the mailing label, and sure enough, it included the subscription’s expiration date.
If you’ve been suckered by this same pitch, I’d like to hear about it. If you haven’t fallen for this slick trick but you’re receiving these notices, contact the magazine and ask when you’re subscription is due to run out, check the mailing label on your magazine, or look up the expiration date on the magazine’s website.
{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
My last magazine subscription was for Motorcyclist magazine which I ended in 1996, so I don’t recall ever having something like your experience happen to me.
However, something that my wife and I got hit on a few times (right after our daughter was born — also in 1996) were kids’ book retailers mailing us books along with a bill. When I wouldn’t pay, they’d normally send me another bill. At that point I would dutifully write a letter back stating that, since I never ordered the books, I assumed they were free gifts which I’d be happy to return if they covered packaging and postage.
This happened three times with three different companies if I recall correctly. Only one of them actually asked for their books back. I was always curious to know how many people would just pay for them.
Hey, this is to the first article on here…..I was scammed as well and I was wondering if you have the address of this place. I have reported it to my Sherriff’s Dept. and I am also going to write a letter to the Better Business Bureau and see if there is something maybe they can do to get my money back. Please let me know if you have it. I can’t make it out on the scanned copy of the reciept you show above. That would really help me out and I’m sorry that it happened to you also.
Thanks,
April Hubbard
Hi, April–
Here it is:
National Publication Billing Services, LLC
1525 S Escondido Boulevard, Ste D
Escondido, CA 92505
Hi Joe,
I received the same type of subscription renewal notice for Rolling Stone (it expires in Sept. 2010) on Saturday (8/8/09). I had not received this type of notification before, so I called the phone number listed (760) 561-1459 today (8/9/09). It’s a local call for me because the location is in the north county of San Diego and I live about 20 miles away from their address. A woman by the name of ‘Debbie’ answered (it sounded like she was talking on a cell phone). I told her that I received the notification and she told me that it states at the bottom of the renewal/order form it’s ‘NOT A BILL’. She told me if I did not want to renew my subscription that I could disregard it and throw it away. I asked her where she got my info. and she told me that they have a ‘huge list of people that have magazine subscriptions.’ I told her that this seemed shady to me and that I would talk to someone about this. I am going to contact the San Diego county’s, District Attorney’s office of the Consumer Protection/Fraud Division http://www.sdcda.org/protecting/consumer.php. I will also contact Rolling Stone. Of course, I will not be sending them a check to renew my subscription.
I hope this helps.
yes i just got one in the mail, and it states the smithersonian magazine. i have never gotten this magazine, i have no interest in it. i have tried to call but the voice mail is full. i can’t find the web page, to cancel this order. do you have the correct web page . thanks cynthia carroll
Hi, Cynthia–
I think National Publication Services has no website. If you’re asking about the website address for Smithsonian Magazine, here it is: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/. Not sure whether they can do anything for you. If you contact them, please come back and post what you found out.
Joe,
I’ve been receiving notices like these for years, and what’s even worse, the magazines show up in the mail even though I’ve never responded to one of these notices. I now receive five different publications each month that I never even ordered or paid for. This company has even contacted me both at home and at work to demand payment for a service that I never ordered! And we’re talking ridiculous sums of money here. (How they got my personal information I have no idea.) After finally speaking to a “manager” they finally agreed to stop contacting me for payment and that the magazines would stop. Six months later…they’re still showing up with additional notices to renew my subscription.
I’m now forced to write “Refused” on each magazine and send it back to the publisher, although this has yet to stop their delivery. This company is running a huge scam and there doesn’t seem to be any way to get them to stop, short of legal action. Please let me know if any of you have any luck with sending complaints to the Better Business Bureau…this needs to end! To all the others out there who might see this, do not ever send anything to this company. Once they’ve got your name and personal information the harassment will continue…
I’ve been receiving this garbage from these t**ds for YEARS! I just throw their crap in the waste basket, but I’m really curious as to how they know what magazines I subscribe to. I just got one today for PC Magazine for $140 for a two year term! The notices are always for magazines that I already subscribe to, so they have some way of ferreting out this info. You have to really look at this mailing carefully to figure out that it’s not a real bill. Seems like there should be some kind of legal recourse here. I’ll check to see if I can leave a complaint with the SD AG’s office, but don’t have much hope.
I just got one for Rolling Stone, a publication I haven’t received lately but ordered years ago throught a discount outfit that i came to feel was deceptive. So I think there is a connection between these scammers and a subscription service. Someone is feeding them the addresses.
I have been receiving the same type of mail, and this time I fell for it. I mailed a personal check back in June and have NOT received any magazines or notices from this company. I need to know what’s going on and how can I contact these people to get my money back or at least get my subscription(s)? Money is too hard to get these days and people scamming you out of hard earned money is cruel!!!! People are losing their jobs and homes and yet noone has compassion for the need of others. How can I make a “legal “complaint?
I need to know how to contact this company.
Hi, Patricya–
Unless they’ve changed it, the phone number is (760) 561-1459. You may want to contact your state attorney general if you can’t get the issue resolved directly. The National Association of Attorneys General’s Website has a directory of state attorneys general.
I received the same form recently, but not from “National Publication Services.” I’m now getting these notices from Global Publishers Center, PO Box 2337, Brea California, 92822, toll free at 1-866-340-0545. Same thing, different name.
Received their non-bill for National Geographic which we do not subscribe to and do not want. Shame they don’t include a prepaid envelope. Too many of these would be paid by corporations and small businesses not knowing it is a FRAUD.
Just received this one today for Popular Mechanics. Four things immediately made me suspicious. 1) I haven’t had a suscription to the magazine for 2 years. 2) What professional agency uses a Yahoo mail account? 3) Most magazines handle renewals in house. They don’t outsource to a third party. 4) The option to check “No Thank You” is just letting them know your address is legit. Kind of like clicking on ‘Unsubscribe” on a spam email. I call this Snail Mail Phishing.
Got a renewal for two years for a magazine my mother used to order. It expires in March 2011. My Mom died over 6 months ago. What a scam!
Same thing happened to me with Vogue magazine. The customer service number is unreachable and the website is false.
How can we report this??
I’ve been getting “Not a Bill” notices from those creeps at National Publication Billing Services for years, for various magazine I don’t want and have never ordered. One for Running Times showed up yesterday, 12/15/2009. An employee at Rodale Press (which publishes Running Times) told me in 2008 that this company is not authorized to sell their titles and Rodale has been trying for a very long time to get this stopped, without success. Rodale doesn’t like this scam any more than we do.
Don’t contact these people in any way, by surface mail, by email or by phone. It just gives them one more way to harrass you.
I just received a “bill” from them for three years of Gourmet. You will note that the last issue of Gourmet was published in November. The publication has terminated. What a scam.
Twice now I have received notice from these people that my subscription to Smithsonian Magazine is due for renewal. The first time I received this notice, I called Smithsonian to verify that I had already renewed my subscription and explained to the customer service rep why I was calling. He verified my subscription was paid up and he suggested that these people were somehow connected with Publisher’s Clearing House. I notified the US Postal Service of this fraudulent billing and received a post card (yes, post card!) form reply. A lot they care. Has anyone learned how they have come by our subscription information in order to perpetrate this hoax?
I get the same junk from
Magazine Payment services
Publishers Billing Exchange
My experience is very different. I received a check in the mail for $119.70 from National Publication Services, Inc. without any explanation why—just the check, nothing else in the envelope. Go figure! I have no clue why I got this. I haven’t cashed it for fear it might get me in trouble or be some new kind of fraud.