Philadelphia Inquirer & Daily News Warn Of Subscription Scam
By Jim Donovan: I recently alerted CBS 3 viewers about a subscription scam involving the New York Times, well now the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News are warning subscribers about fraudulent renewal notices too.
The notices arrive in the mail under different company names, such as: Readers Payment Service, Associated Publishers Network, Publisherpayment.com, Unitedpubex.com, Orbital Publishing Group, Publishers Billing Exchange, United Publisher Service, and Magazine Billing Network, among others. The Inquirer and Daily News say they have no relationship with any of these companies and say the companies have not been authorized to make solicitations on their behalf.
The circulation department at The Inquirer and Daily News is warning customers that if they receive suspicious renewal notices that they shouldn't respond and shouldn't send in any payments. The newspapers say they have received inquiries from both current subscribers and non-subscribers to their publications and the fraudulent notices appear to target random household addresses.
In an email alert to customers the newspapers say they have reported the fraudulent activity to law enforcement authorities, including the Pennsylvania Attorney General. They also say that personal information supplied to The Inquirer or Daily News pertaining to subscriptions (e.g., name, address, telephone number, email address, financial data, etc.) is secure and hasn't been compromised.
Here is a link to the original story that I did on these scams:
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2014/10/03/3-on-your-side-bogus-subscription-renewals/
