Victim Location 45231
Type of a scam Counterfeit Product
There were two men involved in this scam. The first (Luke Miller) called saying he was with Discover Magazine, to which I do subscribe. He asked if I had gotten a bill in the mail lately. I said no. He said that it may not have come yet, but when it did, throw it away because it has the wrong amount on it. He said that they mistakenly charged me the first-time-subscriber price and for the next year I was getting a 40% discount. He said his supervisor would be calling me in a few minutes to finalize the discounted transaction, was that OK? I hesitated because I knew that he was wrong about the whole deal: I pay upfront for all of my subscriptions and the expiration date he quoted was wrong. He insisted that I had another year on my subscription (which I did not…it is listed on the cover of the magazine every month). So I played along. While waiting for his partner to call, I called the Customer Service number listed in my most current Discover Magazine and they verified what I believed was true, and proved Mr. Miller wrong. The representative also told me that they did not even HAVE my home phone number, so no one from there was calling me. After a few minutes, Mr. Miller’s partner called, allegedly named Spencer White. Mr. White was telling me the same story and I told him I didn’t want the extra year. He basically was trying to convince me that I HAD to take the extra year and pay for it. When he realized I was not falling for the story, he accused me of being "nasty". I told him I had dealt directly with Discover and he said no, that I had gotten this subscription through Dial America (?) and Discover didn’t know about it. He did have my address. He claimed to have my credit card number also, but would not verify it "over the phone" – not even the last 4 digits. He continued to say that I was mean and uncooperative, so I just told him that I knew he was a scammer and goodbye. Both of them were relatively good at talking fast and making me wonder just a little if I was not remembering clearly….so I am SURE that an elderly person, or a person who is not skeptical or who doesn’t pay the household bills, would be taken in.