WTF?
Got a letter from "Suomen Aikakausjulkaisut Oy". It had only just a bill, nothing else. "By paying this bill, your subscription for Uutislehti Suomi will be registered for 6 months." It all looks very official, and I am sure it is a real bill.
But I haven't subscribed to it. I have never said "yes" to any shady telemarketers.
It's a scam, as far as I can see. Sent in the vague hope that dumb people would pay the bill, thinking "oh, did my husband order this?". Even the due date is conviniently set for today, so people would think "oh, I gotta pay this now".
I doubt I would ever see more than one issue of the paper, if I subscribed - it does not actually say how many issues there should be... It also turns out that they have been already told by the Finnish Consumer Office to stop this advertising campaign, as it is confusing to the people. So I'll be taking this up to them, then. The other thing is that they are apparently including the RSS feed of a prominent Finnish IT magazine on their front page in an attempt to appear legit. Which, while not exactly forbidden by the EULA, is suspicious at least.
I'm not linking to the site, so that they don't get extra Googlejuice. But I'm sure you can find them pretty easily, if you want.
But the moral of the story being: check your bills before you pay them.
Update: Apparently, someone else (Finnish only) has also been having plenty of trouble with these folks: threats to sue, ISPs being harassed, all sorts of covert action... Cool!
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| "Main_blogentry_090804_1" last changed on 09-Aug-2004 12:08:45 EEST by JanneJalkanen. |
Comments
Kannattaa muuten olla yhteydessä kuluttajavirastoon. Niillä on ongelma, että ihmiset, joita ne firmat yrittää huijata, ei ole yhteydessä kuluttajavirastoon ja näin ollen poliisi ei saa riittävästi materiaalia kokoon lopettaakseen toiminnan. Eli kansalaisvelvollisuus kutsuu ;)--Kukas muukaan, 09-Aug-2004
Luin uutisista, että poliisi ei nosta rikossyytettä tuosta jutusta, koska se ei ole virallinen lasku, vaan kehoitus ainoastaan. Vaikka lasku näyttää viralliselta siinä ei missään lue, että asiakkaan on pakko maksaa se. (näin ymmärsin asian itse).
Aika paha scam kyllä, pakko myöntää.
--antti, 09-Aug-2004
Peilasin tuon sivuston myös omalla domainillani, joten se löytyy nyt myös http://www.timetombs.net/ojan.net/index.htm.
--Shrike, 09-Aug-2004
Niin siis tästä osoitteesta. Prkl tätä wiki touhua :)
--Shrike, 09-Aug-2004
A very common tactic in the U.S. Sorry to see it in Finland.
--bluehole, 10-Aug-2004