THE NSA IS AFTER ME

A couple of months ago, I received an email offer from American Express to get a free subscription to a magazine of my choice. I don’t read much beside geeky, sciency stuff so I decided to broaden my horizons and chose “GQ Magazine” in hopes of gaining some insight into how to properly adorn oneself . I was smart enough to check that the mail actually came from American Express but I was dumb enough to accept the offer.

If you are familiar the skeptical nature of my articles, you already know where this is going. Yes, I got scammed. I recently received a scary letter from a company called “North Shore Agency.” Their website says, “For three decades, North Shore Agency (NSA) has set the standard in successful outsourced billing services and collection programs that get results for clients, including many Fortune 100 companies.” I say, “Bull Pucky!”

A quick search of the Google revealed that I’m not alone in calling bull pucky on them. It appears they do perform some legitimate collections services but their sideline appears to be scamming people like me. They have somehow gained access to databases containing names of people who have received “free” magazine subscriptions as well as people who are up for renewal. I suspect they have inside help from magazine clearing houses.

The scam begins when NSA sends an official-looking “collection notice” to either pay up or face the consequences. Some people report they received notices of a “past due” account with FedEx but most complaints are from from magazine subscribers. It may even be possible that NSA is legitimate, but the magazine publishers send NSA the names of people who request “free” magazines and try to get them to pay. But the evidence suggests that NSA is the real culprit.

There have been a number of class action lawsuites going back as far as 1998 according to my research. They story is the same. One law firm’s website says, “Jesse Ray, an attorney with James, Hoyer, Newcomer & Smiljanich, P.A., a Tampa firm that frequently represents victims of corporate fraud, stated: ‘We have received hundreds of complaints from consumers around the country regarding North Shore Agency’s collection practices. It appears North Shore Agency’s collection letters are an effort to coerce consumers into paying for magazine subscriptions they do not want. The lawsuit alleges North Shore Agency, Inc. is sending collection letters to consumers who do not owe this money. Further, these collection letters fail to notify customers how to challenge the validity of the debt as required by law.’”

The kicker is the small print on the back side of their letter that says that if they don’t hear back from you within 30 days “in writing” they will assume the debt is valid and pester you again. So, I’ve filed a complaint with the Alabama Attorney General’s office. They have a nifty on-line complaint form located at www.ago.state.al.us/. Take that, NSA!

Jim owns Excel Computer Services in Florence and Madison. Reach him at www.ExcelAL.com.

THE CHARGEBACK SCAM

I received a call from a friend recently. She was suspicious of a “church pastor” who had emailed her inquiring about purchasing a few thousand dollars’ worth of playground equipment. They wanted to retrieve the equipment directly from the manufacturer.

Had she gone through with the deal with the pastor, it would have resulted in a pact with the devil dissected as follows: Her company would process the credit card or “cashier’s check.” The payment would actually show up in the company’s bank account. The “pastor” or his representative would retrieve the equipment from the factory. Some days or weeks later, the playground equipment company would receive a call from their bank informing them that the credit card was stolen or the cashier’s check was bogus and would result in a “chargeback.” A chargeback is the reversal of an exchange of funds from a consumer's bank account or credit card. The “pastor” would have already fenced the goods for cold hard cash.

Variants of this scam involve using a free phone service called “Deaf Relay.” This service is what the deaf and speech-disabled people use to speak to the hearing community. This taxpayer-funded service allows a person with a specially-equipped text telephone or internet connection to call a Text Message Relay Service. The operator dials the number for them and relays the text conversation to the hearing person then relays to the deaf person what the hearing person says. These operators are required by law to relay everything said even if they suspect a scam. The scammers using these services usually reside in Nigeria or Russia. Some of these scams have been tracked back to a federal prison. Yep, prisoners are conducting scams like this from prison on our dime. Nice, huh?

Out of curiosity, I recently played along with one of these scams. The person on the other end of the phone said he wanted to purchase 5 expensive notebook computers. I quoted him a ridiculously high price for each notebook computer and he “agreed” to the price. He then gave me a credit card number. I “accepted” that payment but told him there was evidently a limit placed on the card. So he gave me another credit card number. I “accepted” that one. He then asked me to double the quantity and gave me yet another credit card number. I was to ship all the equipment to an address in Boston. Once the “transaction” was completed, I told the operator to relay “Bite me, scammer!” then reported the stolen credit card numbers to VISA. Had I been foolish enough to actually go through with the transaction, my bank account would have been obese for few days while I enjoyed a spending spree then I’d get a chargeback from the credit card company. I would still be on the hook for the purchase of the equipment from my distributor.

These scams don’t always involve large purchases. I’ve heard from sporting goods stores for small quantities of tennis shoes. Many Ebay sellers receive inflated offers from people offering to buy an item without even bidding on it. As always, be skeptical!