I got a phone call from an alleged PRS... Thanks to Bethany from Norfolk, VA, I was able to stop this before I was charged...
This is their script...
"Hi, my name is % with PRS. This is just a courtesy call to let you know that you have been entered into the dream of a lifetime sweepstakes, so congratulations! Now, this sweepstakes is held every year for customers of Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover. And you do still carry one of these cards correct? Great! Now as a contestant you are in the running for $25,000 in cash, a brand new BMW 325i series or a trip to Australia! Now someone has to win so we wish you the best of luck. I do have a few quick survey questions. (questions asked to determine age, marital status, which card they hold.) Okay great now for participating in our promotion today you will receive a free men's or ladies diamond watch. And it's a gorgeous watch so we know you'll love it. And also as part of the publishers sweepstakes giveaway you have been chosen to receive %, %, and % magazines free of charge for a full 60 months! You will also receive a catalog with hundreds of other magazine selections which allows you to change these selections as often as you wish free of charge! And finally to complement your free magazines you will also receive % magazine for a full 60 months. Now the % magazine is the only one we ask your help with and as a sweepstakes contestant you get everything for just $3.84 weekly. Now i have your address as % is this correct? Great!
Now i will just need you to grab a pen and paper to jot down some sweepstakes information. The drawing is going to be held on august 31st, and your order number is c-208. Now i will just have to transfer you to my supervisor so that they can validate your sweepstakes entry and grade my performance. Before i let you go do you have any questions regarding your order? Now you will hear a few clicks on the line but please stay on the line and make sure you tell my supervisor which watch to send you, the mens or the ladies ok? Then they transfer you to the supervisor who records you agreeing to be charged the amount of nearly $60 a month to your credit card over the next year. They say you pay so much for 12 months to avoid having to pay such a small amount every week for 60 months. Then they call you back a few months later and tell you that since you have been such a good customer, they are offering to lower your payments to nearly $40 a month. But in actuality they just record you, again, agreeing to let them charge $40 to your card per month, so legally they are able to take a total of nearly $100 from your account each and every month!"
After hanging up, I figured it was pretty weird to be receiving a really nice watch in addition to the jumble of inaudible things the woman began to blurt out at the end of the call. Something sounded fishy and I decided to check it out. I found a consumer complaints entitled "IMA International Marketing Association scam con ripoff magazine LMA IMA PRS Virginia Beach Virginia" and even though it focused on a company called IMA, I soon realized that this was the same company under a different alias. Other aliases are PRS, LMA, CRC, and Atlantic Magazine Services DBA. I'm sure there have to be at least a few more.
What I did: I called my bank and asked them to issue me a new card with a new number and to cancel the old one.
I also emailed the Better Business Bureau (http://www.bbb.org/) so that they would know, since this company IS accredited by them.
I can't believe that companies are allowed to be accredited only because they can give refunds IF the person knows they're being scammed and DECIDE to take action... This shouldn't be happening in the first place, but somehow it's legal. For some unknown reason, it seems to be legal for a company (third party) to have your credit card information and to call you and record your phone call so that they can have "evidence" of you saying "yes" to being charged large sums of money every month. As Bethany stated in her report, it only gets worse... Even the employees are scammed.
I hope this helps someone out there who is checking out the companies that contact them...
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