The Attorneys General of New York, Oregon, Minnesota, Missouri and Texas have taken joint legal action against a number of companies operating a scam by which they send out renewal notices to consumers promising huge savings on renewals of subscriptions of many leading publications including Consumer Reports, National Geographic, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post.  None of the newspapers and publications had any relationship or knowledge of the scam by which rather than providing the promised low prices, the scammers actually charged huge markups on the subscription costs of as much as 40%.  the scammers would then place orders with the publications on behalf of their victims at the lower prices charged by the newspapers and periodicals and keep the rest of the payment for themselves.

TIPS

This scam was perpetrated under the names of many different companies including Magazine Payment Services, Associated Publishers Network and Publishers Periodical Service.  Whenever you receive a renewal offer for any periodical or newspaper to which you subscribe, you should read it carefully to make sure that it is actually coming from the newspaper or periodical and not a third party scammer.  It is also an easy matter to compare subscription prices on line from the newspaper or periodical directly or legitimate third party’s that offer subscriptions which often can be at reduced rates.