Today I received an invoice in the mail from a company called Subscription Billing in Tarrytown NY. It was an obvious fishing scheem trying to get me to send them payment for Model Railroader Magazine. As many of you should be aware, Kalmbach Publishing does not use any outside subscription sales or services so I knew it was just a fraud. Upon notifying Kalmbach, their customer service rep responded and told me that they were having problems with fraudulent use of their mailing lists and were trying to get this thing stopped.
I can appreciate the problem that Kalmbach is having with this and hope none of you fall for it.
It would seem that Kalmbach either sells their mailing lists or fails to protect what should be confidential information and I suggested that they take steps to correct that problem.
I am curious to know how many others got one of these flim flam invoices and to warn everyone not to be taken in by this outfit.
As Mike Douglas said in the movie, “a fool and his money were lucky to get together in the first place”
You only received one invoice? I got two today saying that they were a “notice of renewal/new order”, except they were from a company called National Magazine Services with a PO box in Elmsford, NY. One invoice was for MR (I’m a subscriber), and the other was for Air and Space, which I’ve never purchased. Both went into the recycle bin.
This is a similar thread to one I think was started last year, where fantastic subscription offers were made by companies not related to Kalmbach. Of course a couple folks claimed that they had taken the offers and were getting great savings over whatever Kalmbach happened to be offering. I remain skeptical.
Every so often some guy gets it into his cranium to buy a mailing list of one sort or another to see whether he can scam a few bucks. OY. This happened to me with a couple of trade papers I subscribe to. I remember my wife got one from something called N.American Subscription Services regarding a Quilt Collectors journal.[sigh][|(]
You see anything like that --document the name and send to Adbusters. I’m pretty sure they’re starting to collect a lot of those[banghead]
I’m one of those who had bargain subscriptions for a couple of years. I looked again this year at the same souce, Net Magazines. They had a great price on the opening page, but when you clicked on it, the price changed to the same one Kalmbach has for everyone. This is misleading, of course, but my guess is that it’s nothing more sinister than bad web page maintenance. I waited a while to see if the price would go down again, but it didn’t happen, and I finally just re-upped directly through Kalmbach.
I’ll check online again next year. Net Magazines worked fine for me, so I have no reason to believe they’re not an honest company.
My son’s school is selling magazine subscriptions as its fundraiser this year. Knowing that Kalmbach doesn’t use outside subscription services, I found it interesting that Model Railroader was in the catalog (as well as RMC).
Thank you for the info. As a subscriber for many, many, many years to an automotive magazine, I am used to renewing my subscription for several years at a time through a third party subscription service. I have subscribed to MR for less than a year and was not aware that Kalmbach does not use these services. I may have fallen for these offers.
I received one for RMC yesterday. Checked the RMC website and saw the notice for the other outfit. The National company originally was listed in Pittsburgh. Guess they had to move to Elmsford NY… wonder why… sounds fishy to me…
Got the one from National Magazine Services in Elmsford, NY a couple of days ago. Always someone trying to separate you from your money. E-mail is really bad - some weeks I get as many scam attempts as legit e-mails. You need to read everything very carefully; you can usually pick up on something that will give it away. A lot of these guys haven’t mastered the English language well and sentence structure or mis-spelling of a Corporate name that they are trying to scam you with is often a clue.
This is mail fraud, plain and simple. Take it to your Post Office and report it.
Unlike all the e-mail that originates on a server in Upper Slobovia, the government really can do something about a place sending letters and collecting illegitimate gains in Elmsford, NY, even if there’s nothing there but a PO Box.
It would seem that Kalmbach either sells their mailing lists or fails to protect what should be confidential information and I suggested that they take steps to correct that problem.
Actually your adress is a matter of public record…I can get it through several providers…
I buy a subscription for Car Craft and Hot Rod from a girl I work with every year. One of her kids sells subscriptions for a school fundraiser every year. I think I pay 20 bucks each a year for them and have never missed an issue in the 6 years I’ve bought them from her. I still prefer to get my RMC and MR at my local hobby shop, it gives me a chance to see whats new every month.
I renewed last year through MagazineLine. I checked them out and they provide a real address and customer service # - even a person’s name. I decided they were legit and took their offer - at a pretty good discount. I just received a reminder that my subscription will be running out. Unless I see something untoward about them, I’ll renew again through them. Of course, this is not the same as the OP’s problem - he actually received an unsolicited invoice in the mail - those I discard.