McKenna
SEATTLE (Legal Newsline) - Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna has issued a warning against those selling magazine subscriptions door-to-door claiming to be working for a charity.
The State's warning comes against Fresh Start Opportunities, which claims to be a "job business training company." Young adults are sent door-to-door selling magazines by the company to give them a fresh start on life.
"After paying generous amounts for subscriptions, consumers throughout the country never received the magazines and have no idea how their money was spent," McKenna said.
The solicitors tell consumers that they are earning money for college, working toward a better job, contributing proceeds to help homeless youth or earning points for a free trip.
A common thread among the complaints filed with McKenna and the Better Business Bureau is that the consumers were touched by the stories of the solicitors.
Outstanding subscriptions payments from $50-$784 are listed among the complaints. Consumers paid for their subscriptions by check.
Fresh Start Opportunities lists a downtown Seattle address on its website, though that address is a mail-forwarding service that scans the letters, which are then sent by e-mail to the addressee.
Fresh Start opportunities is believed to be located in another state. A toll-free phone number listed on the company's website plays an automatic message informing callers that it is temporarily unavailable.
This is not the first trouble Fresh Start Opportunities has had with the law. Last fall, a 19-year-old employee of the company was arrested in connection with a robbery in Edmonds, Wash., and was a suspect in burglaries in Sammamish, Wash., and Tumwater, Wash.