"Magazine Payment Services" - a scam??

[marknhj]

To be fair to T&FN selling mailing lists is a pretty standard business practice. However, when the list is "sold" or liscensed, the buyer shouldn't actually get their hands on it; it should go to a bonded mailhouse and only be used once, plus the seller should authorise what is going to sent out.

[guru]

Somebody--we'll never know who--who was "reputable" turned out not to be so much and resold the list to these people.

All SAVVY businesses that sell their mailing lists put a "red herring" address into the list, always a DIFFERENT name each time it's sold, and usually the address used with the fake name is one of the company's employees or a PO Box. That way it's child's play to figure out who sold it second hand - just check which "bogus" addressee received the second hand mailing.

Guess you guys didn't do that.

[gh]

All SAVVY businesses that sell their mailing lists put a "red herring" address into the list, always a DIFFERENT name each time it's sold, and usually the address used with the fake name is one of the company's employees or a PO Box. That way it's child's play to figure out who sold it second hand - just check which "bogus" addressee received the second hand mailing.

Guess you guys didn't do that.

You mean just like TIME, Runner's World, Running Times, Coin World, Sports Illustrated, Fortune........

http://www.nydailynews.com/business/sto ... 5683c.html

These guys are very good at what they do, unfortunately. I assure you that we exercised all due diligence in attempting to maintain the sanctity of the lists. And rather than risk any further exposure, did the only 100% guaranteed thing to cure it, even if it meant revenue loss, which was to stop all (future) outside usage.

[gm]

You guys decided to sleep with dogs when you sold your mailing list, a reprehensible business move. YOU should deal with the fleas.

Reprehensible? Gimme a break, dude. It's a mailing list, and it's standard practice across the board with publications.

[guru]

These guys are very good at what they do, unfortunately. I assure you that we exercised all due diligence in attempting to maintain the sanctity of the lists. And rather than risk any further exposure, did the only 100% guaranteed thing to cure it, even if it meant revenue loss, which was to stop all (future) outside usage.

And I commend you for that. But the point is if you hadn't sold the lists in the first place, which I as a business owner would NEVER do, this would have never happened, "standard business practice" or not. Once you let them out in the public domain, without any "tracking" mechanism, don't be surprised if others sell them for revenue to a third party, legit or not.

And Time, SI, Runners World, etc. use just about every third party subscription service on the planet to push their magazines so they also shouldn't be surprised when a rogue agent or two also has hold of their subscriber list.

[guru]

You guys decided to sleep with dogs when you sold your mailing list, a reprehensible business move. YOU should deal with the fleas.

Reprehensible? Gimme a break, dude. It's a mailing list, and it's standard practice across the board with publications.

My point, dude, is that I always am amazed at the fact a publication can sell their subscriber list for profit, then act like stunned victims when an unauthorized agent obtains that list and contacts their subscribers.