P.C. Shannon

I had one of those kids selling magazines come to my door today. Usually I turn them away, but I guess because I knew some of my subscriptions were coming up for renewal, I took a look at his wares. I bought a renewal for Wired for two years for $50 even though a single year is only $10. I figured the money was going to a good cause, something about getting kids off the streets, but I couldn't shake the feeling that I had been fleeced. Sp of course I turned to the Internet.

The company that handles the subscriptions, American Community Services includes their website on the order form. Of course, it looks reasonably legit. So I stuck their name into Google and came up with this site, which basically says, yes, it's a scam. The kids are lying to you about earning points for a trip or whatever, but they're also being exploited by the people who put together the sales crews and the clearing house. I also found this story about one of these kids assaulting an elderly woman. Nice.

Time to cancel my order.

P.S. In preparing my cancelation form, I discovered that on the back of one of the forms, it explicitly states that salespersons are prohibited from saying that they are working for prizes, scholarships, or anything of the things that they say!