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publisher to verify the expiration date and to confirm that the caller is authorized to renew your subscription.
• Ask for a written copy of the contract before you agree to buy any subscription. Read it. Make sure you understand what you’ll get, the cost of each magazine and each subscription, and the cost of the entire package.
• Keep information about your bank accounts and credit cards to yourself—unless you know whom you’re dealing with. You may get a letter or postcard soliciting your business, or telling you that you’ve won a prize or a contest. Often, this is a front for
a scam. Instructions tell you to respond to a promoter with certain information. If you give your bank account or credit card number over the phone to a stranger for “qualification,” “verification,” or “computer purposes,” it may be used to debit your account without your permission.
Cancelling Subscriptions
There is no federal law that regulates the cancellation of telephone agreements. Though there are certain state and local laws that require telemarketers to provide a cancellation period, don’t agree to buy on the assumption that you can cancel later.
If your state or locality requires a cancellation period, and you want to cancel a subscription you bought on the phone, follow these instructions:
• Watch your mail for the sales agreement; it may come in a plain or “junk mail” type envelope. Look for the cancellation terms; cancellation may be allowed only within three days of your receipt of the agreement. The cancellation notice may be hard to find. It could be attached to an inside page of multiple copies of the sales agreement.
• Sign the cancellation notice and return it to the proper address, which may be difficult to find because several addresses may be
Magazine Sales Scams