Magazine subscription scams have been around for over 20 years and have involved criminal actions from door-to-door salespeople, telemarketers, and mail fraudsters who send out fake renewal/cancellation slips.

Magazine publishers may have no idea of how their product is being used to deceive people.

These fraudsters pushed the limits by using magazine brand names to gain trust and to spread and legitimize their fraud.

ALERT: There continues to be active reports in 2021 of the magazine crew scam in California and a number of other states.

Regarding the exchange between the customer and the seller, consumers had been trained that with magazines, you sent them a check or credit card information and waited. You did not receive the product immediately, and you trusted it would arrive.

Magazine publishers paid great commissions to third-party distributors and markets who could whip up new subscribers. Unfortunately, these same publishers turned a blind eye and blamed the third-party contractors.

They accomplished their fraud scheme by calling victim-consumers who had one or more existing magazine subscriptions and offering to “renew” the existing magazine subscriptions, often at a reduced cost. In reality, the defendants were not calling to renew or reduce the price of the existing subscriptions.

As a result, many victim-consumers were victimized by multiple magazine companies. Some were fraudulently billed by as many as ten companies at a time and received more than $1,000 in monthly magazine subscription charges.

In all, the defendants stole more than $300 million from more than 150,000 victims using this scheme. Justice.gov.

Know when each magazine is up for renewal and only deal with the magazine publisher directly, or only use our list of Verified magazine sellers below.

You need to control your own magazine so don’t be pushed into buying, They are only there for their benefit and not for you. By allowing these salespeople into your home, you’re opening yourself up to more than just magazine subscription fraud.

Others could use this as a way to scope the inside of your house for a future robbery or home invasion. Never let someone past the front door, even if they have a copy of Time or The Economist in their hands and a renewal sheet to build your trust.

Advice from the U.S. Attorney General.

Attorney General Erica MacDonald says, “Unfortunately, we live in a world where fraudsters are willing to take advantage of seniors, who are often trusting and polite.” Be firm and direct—don’t get tricked at your own home. Add a ‘No Soliciting’ sign, and don’t answer unless you can confirm you know the person.

It is much harder to see what you are signing up for on the phone—some sketchy sellers have recorded a ‘Yes’ on the phone and re-used it to sign the customer up for many magazines.

During a four-week period beginning in December 2017, 17 different magazine subscription resellers across eight states charged her more than $1,500. (Published in Mpls St Paul).

Set up a calendar and only deal directly with the publisher.

“Using a tactic like telemarketing magazine sales, these deceitful scam artists bill hard-earned money from their aging victims—leaving so many financially devastated in their retirement years and without recourse for recovery,” Michael Paul, the FBI’s special agent in charge in Minneapolis, said. Don’t sign up over the phone on a sales call.

Many scammers have taken to replicating the magazine renewal notices and sending out a ‘courteous reminder’ to renew early for savings or discounts—it all seems simple. However, if you complete the wrong renewal, the scammer will take your money, and you’ll never get the magazine.

In this example provided by The Nation, the address became the main way for consumers to differentiate between a genuine renewal and a scam. The Nation magazine shows the difference between a real renewal / donation and fakes from scammers.

Read the fine print. Look at any “renewal” notice carefully, including the fine print and the name of the sender.

Gift With Purchase. Unlike a standard gift where the gift giver needs to pay for the gift, a magazine subscription is different—a publisher pays commissions to retailers for subscriptions.

The bigger the subscription, the bigger the commission payout for the retailer. Therefore, some sellers will try to hide that you are actually signing up for an auto-renewing subscription, allowing the publisher to keep billing the credit card you used for the original unrelated purchase months earlier.

Sweepstakes / Prizes. A common prize used to hook people is 52 weeks of $10,000 per week.

Advice from the San Angelo Police Department. Victims are informed by postcard or phone that they have won one of three or four prizes as some sort of promotional offering.

Victims are told that they have to sign up for the magazines and cover handling, taxes, shipping, and accounting fees to collect their prize. If any prize is eventually received, it is always worth less than the processing money.

Selling magazines in a magazine “crew” might be something they stumble into. However, Alachua County Sheriff’s Office spokesman, Art Forgey, said that in Florida, a target location for magazine crews and scams, there are both illegitimate and legitimate salespeople representing news magazines in crews.

“Some crews do a good job and help people create an income,” Crystal Davis from Young People Working told the Atlantic. “I’ve been in this business since I was 19, and it’s been wonderful for me, an extraordinary journey.”.

The stranger said he was trying to make a living and that his sister was dying of breast cancer. Then came the pitch: Would Rohan want to buy some magazine subscriptions.

Rohan said no, but the stranger did not let up. “He was pushy,” Rohan recalled.

Source: The Gainesville Sun. Many members of magazine crews don’t even know that their employer is sketchy.

Magazine crews typically move around geographically and can be disbanded instantly when the authorities get leads on fraud.

Mag crew workers typically work 10- to 12-hour days for little pay, with employers exerting physical or psychological control over them.

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Many subscription offers are tempting, especially if they offer a free trial period before you commit. But free trial offers can be tricky, and there’s often a catch.

If you don’t cancel on time, you’ll be charged. Usually, you have to give your credit card number for a “free trial.” That way, the company can charge you if you don’t cancel before the trial period ends.

Tip: Make sure you’re clear on the terms of the trial period. If you sign up, make a note on your calendar to remind you to cancel.

If you have to pay for shipping or fees to get your “free” trial, it’s not really free. The offer may say you can try a product free — but you have to pay a small fee for shipping costs or something else.

Tip: Free means free. Be suspicious of companies that offer something free but say you have to pay to get it.

That online ad you saw may not be from the company selling the product. Companies hire affiliate marketers to promote a product and create many ads you see online for free trials.

Some dishonest affiliate marketers put out ads with exaggerated claims or misleading information to get you to click. Tip: Remember that some ads may be designed to make you click, not tell you the truth about the offer.

Find the terms and conditions for the offer. The terms and conditions should tell you.

See what other people are saying about the company’s free trial offers, but make sure to compare online reviews from a wide variety of websites. User reviews can give you a good idea about the offer you’re considering.

Look for information on how you can cancel future shipments or services. If you don’t want the product or service anymore, how do you cancel.

Can you skip shipments if you don’t want to fully cancel, but don’t need the shipment or service as often. Do you have a limited time to respond.

Watch out for pre-checked boxes. If you sign up for a free trial online, look for boxes that are already checked for you.

Make sure to uncheck a box if you don’t agree with what it says. Mark your calendar.

Once the deadline to cancel passes, you may be on the hook for more products or services and more payments. Monitor your credit and debit card statements.

See the section How To Stop a Subscription for more on how to dispute a charge you didn’t authorize. If you’re happy with a subscription and want to continue with it, auto-renewals can be convenient.

Here are three things to keep in mind about auto-renewals: 1.

This isn’t a bill or an invoice, so it shouldn’t ask for your credit card information. A renewal notice is simply a reminder about when your subscription expires and that you’ll be automatically charged when it does.

Read the notice carefully. The company may be trying to get you to renew an old subscription that you canceled.

Check that the cost is what you expected. Sometimes when the renewal automatically happens, you’re charged more than you were last time.

When you get your renewal notice, read it closely to confirm that the rate you’re getting is what you expected. If it isn’t, or if the notice doesn’t say how much you’ll pay, call the company right away.

Tip: Sometimes you can cancel a subscription and re-subscribe for a better promotional rate. Just make sure that you know exactly when that promotional period ends, and mark it on your calendar.

Scammers sometimes send fake renewal notices to get your financial information. If you get a renewal notice for a subscription you don’t have, it’s probably from a scammer or a dishonest company trying to get you to give them your credit card number or other personal information.

Tip: Search online for the company name with the words “scam” or “complaint” to see if other people got the same fake renewal notice. If it’s a company you do business with, contact the company at a number you know is correct to see if the renewal notice is real.

A negative option is when you’re automatically billed for something when you didn’t specifically say not to bill you. It’s a common practice that businesses use, and it often happens with free trial offers and subscriptions.

After that month, you’re charged automatically for monthly shipments until you cancel. Or you get a magazine subscription that renews automatically when it expires.

Your silence is taken as consent to be charged. The problem with negative options comes when the business doesn’t clearly explain that it will keep billing you unless you do something — or if the business makes it difficult or impossible for you to cancel.

If you’re charged without your consent, and the company won’t refund your money, dispute the charge (also called a “chargeback”) with your credit or debit card company right away. If you want to stop a subscription you’re enrolled in:

If the company has instructions on how to cancel, follow those. Keep a copy of your cancellation request, along with notes about any conversations you had and how and when you canceled.

Check for charges on your debit or credit card after you canceled the subscription. If a company won’t stop charging your account after you’ve tried to cancel a subscription, file a dispute (also called a “chargeback”) with your credit or debit card.

To protect any rights you may have, follow up in writing by sending a letter to the address listed for billing disputes or errors. Use our sample letter.

Save your records. Keep any letters, notes, or emails related to the scam — they could help prove you’re entitled to a refund if the credit or debit card company has any questions.

If you have problems canceling a subscription, or you’ve been charged for a subscription you didn’t agree to, report it to.

Skillful scammers have mastered mimicking subscription renewal notices from legitimate magazine publishers to trick consumers into revealing personal information or paying a fee. These scammers may offer re-subscription discounts, auto-renew cancellation refunds, or debt collections—all part of magazine subscription scams.

Deceptive renewal notices are causing several subscribers to fall prey to a widespread fake subscription or cancellation scam. The first step to beating this kind of scam is to understand how it works and red flags to watch out for.

The notice could claim to be from a magazine that you actually subscribe to or one you don’t and could be in person, by mail, by phone, or email. Either way, the end game is the same—they want your personal information and/or money.

Hello. We have noticed your subscription for the Reader’s Digest has not been paid and will need to be renewed or canceled.

I just need your payment information to renew, or I can cancel the subscription and refund your account. If you want to keep your magazine subscription, the caller will ask you for your updated payment information so you can continue to receive your magazines as usual.

If it’s a subscription that you don’t have, you tell them to cancel it. It’s not uncommon to have subscriptions that you’re not aware of these days, so the scammer will scare you into thinking this is the case.

There is a different version of this scam whereupon canceling your subscription. the caller will say they have accidentally refunded too much money into your credit card account.

Once you give the scammer your credit card and personal information, they will be able to use this to either regularly charge your card for a fake magazine subscription or other items for their own personal gain. If you buy gift cards for the scammer, they will use the balance of the gift cards almost immediately, and you’ll later find out that they never credited your account balance in the first place, putting you out of hundreds of dollars.

Postal Inspection Service to investigate the experiences of defrauded victims. According to the investigation, these entities have identified dozens of companies involved in fake subscription sales located within the United States and worldwide.

These fake subscription scams typically rely on predatory tactics and inattentive consumers. Scammers’ predatory tactics might include pressure sales, hidden information in the fine print, lack of company contact information for cancellations, debt collection threats, and more.

If you happen to receive a random renewal notice, you’ll want to confirm the address on the form to the subscription mailing address in your magazine. You should avoid sending money to an address different from the one inside your magazine.

Box for subscription renewals.

Find the magazine’s contact information online or on the magazine itself.

The best way to protect yourself from these magazine subscription scams is to check your credit card and bank statements regularly to stay on top of which subscriptions you are (and should be) paying for. Various apps help you monitor your credit card transactions and subscriptions in particular.

This will let you see quickly and easily what subscriptions you are being charged for regularly. Illegitimate subscription companies target the elderly and other vulnerable individuals and trick them into unwittingly signing up for expensive magazine subscription packages or paying for cancellation fees.

Scammers coerced these individuals into paying more than $300 million in unwanted magazine subscriptions, some costing aging victims more than $1,000 a month. An example of the magazine subscription scam involved a 69-year-old woman who heard from a man supposedly from a large international law firm inquiring about her past due balance of $1,100 with the Family Readers Club.

When the woman declined, he became aggressive and threatened to pursue legal action and renew her subscription for three years. According to the Michigan State Police, unsuspecting Michiganders have either given away access to their computer and personal information or nearly $4,000 worth of non-refundable gift cards.

When the subscriber doesn’t want to pay for renewal, the scammer takes the subscriber through a cancellation and refund process. For instance, a scammer might say the subscriber is eligible for a $600 refund.

Then, the scammer tells the subscriber to send the difference in the form of gift cards. While the Michigan subscription cancellation scam has started gaining traction this year, these deceptive renewal notices aren’t confined to this state in the Great Lakes.

Scammers contacted individuals with one or more magazine subscriptions and offered renewals at a reduced rate. These scammers, though, weren’t calling to renew or reduce the price of the individual’s subscription.

Some consumers were fraudulently billed by up to 10 companies at a time, which they couldn’t afford. In one case, a 78-year-old woman had been unknowingly spending $1,402.91 on magazines annually after falling for magazine scams.

If you’ve fallen prey to a magazine subscription scam, contact your bank and report any of these charges as fraud. Your bank may:

If a merchant receives a significant number of chargebacks, banks may rescind their ability to accept consumers’ payments. This step helps ensure other individuals aren’t falling victim to the same scam and scammer.

antitrust law and consumer protection. File a complaint online and provide:

If you think you may have fallen victim to a magazine subscription scam, you should also watch your credit report. Scammers may send subscription bills to collections to pressure you to send additional funds.

More often than not, these companies won’t have such proof available, and the fake charges will be removed.