SALEM, Ore. (Legal Newsline) - A White City, Ore., enterprise will pay the State $3 million for allegedly running a newspaper and magazine subscription scam, said Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum.
The enterprise, which consisted of 19 companies and nine individuals, will pay $500,000 in restitution to consumers who overpaid or didn't receive the magazines they subscribed to, according to the Assurance of Voluntary Compliance filed in Marion County court on Tuesday.
"This was a sophisticated operation that generated millions of dollars each year from consumers across the country who thought they were doing business with a reputable magazine or newspaper publisher, but were instead working with a company that made its money by scamming them,” Rosenblum said. "It's a particular embarrassment to the legitimate Oregon business community when national companies based here don't play by the rules. The only option was to shut them down—and we have."
Rosenblum said consumers would receive solicitations in the mail that appeared to be invoices from magazines or newspaper publishers, but were actually from a third-party source. The mailings would advertise that the subscriptions were the lowest price, but the prices were inflated significantly, Rosenblum said.
The named defendants in the case included Liberty Publishers Service, Express Publishers Services, Associated Publishers Network, Publishers Payment Processing, Jeffrey Hoyal, Lydia Pugsley and Noel Parducci.