"John's" Story ... an EXTREME example of magazine subscription scam abuses

This is the compiled verbatim comment (with e-mail redacted) posted by Anonymous on theNRSscam blog contents on 5/15/11.

I extend my most sincere thanks to this “/D” for sharing “John’s” story here and look forward to the valuable insights his work will bring. Hopefully these efforts of advocacy on “John’s” behalf will ultimately bring each “company” in question under scrutiny and result in meaningful accountability for the responsible individuals.

Thanks for visiting theNRSscam blog. Hope something here is helpful. D/

*************************************************************************************

Hi D/.

I'm an attorney in NY and have been appointed as the Guardian of an older gentleman who has been scammed so bad that it will be the most extreme example ever posted on this site once I have the time to elaborate, and will likely lead in prosecutions from the District Attorneys' office where this man resides for, among other things, fraud, theft, and ELDER ABUSE. I am also going to report it to whatever Federal and additional local/State authorities when I have the time to figure that out (this website has been a MASSIVE HELP, so thanks!).

I'd have more time to elaborate, but I've spent the majority of the past 2 days reveiwing this gentleman's bank records for his "personal spending account" for the past year (yes, THAT MANY debits have been made that it took days to review the account statements). The statements I've been reviewing are for his "personal" checking account, which is the one from which the automatic debits were made by the magazine companies (his bank account is linked to a debit card number these companies somehow obtained). Unfortunately, I'm very limited in terms of how much information I can publicly share, due to privacy rules (Federal and State), and because I don't want to do anything BUT fix this problem, rather than become anyone's hero.

While I'm limited in what I can share, the general situation is as follows: (a) Court decides John Doe is mentally "incapacitated" and that he requires the assistance of a Guardian to help him with his medical decisions and his Property Management; (b) John Doe's parents set up a Trust for John and there should be enough in the Trust to allow him to live a comfortable life in his "golden years". As Guardian, I was required to "marshal" all assets into special accounts that are not susceptible to this kind of abuse, which I set up years ago, protecting all of the assets that were there as of the date the Court appointed me as Guardian; (c) All judicially-declared "incapacitated" persons are NOT equal. They can vary anywhere from, for example: (i) a person in a totally vegetative state who cannot speak, etc.; to (b) a higher-functioning person who nonetheless has been judicially-declared "incapacitated" because they require assistance with their personal needs and/or property management.

My John Doe is on FAR end of the functionality spectrum as person as persons who have been appointed Guardians are concerned. As a result, the Court ordered me to set up a separate "personal spending account" for him, and I put a small monthly Court-ordered "stipend" into his "personal spending account" each month from the Trust account (where his assets are protected and managed by me to pay for his needs). In addition, my John Doe is employed by a corporation doing light work in what is essentially a "stock-boy" capacity, so he earns some income. At first, the few hundred dollars he earns each month was being directly-deposited into the "protected" / Trust account that I manage. My John Doe complained to me that he's earning this money, and wants control over it. I agreed that this was 100% reasonable, and obtained a Court Order which allowed me to arrange for this direct deposit. Now, whereas the rules and regulations governing me, as Guardian, are very strict with respect to how the property must be managed and used to pay for his costs of living, etc. (see the example above, where I needed to obtain a Court Order to have HIS OWN INCOME HE EARNS into his "personal spending account"), my John Doe has carte blanche with his own "personal spending account", which the Court felt appropriate given his relatively high level of functionality. I agreed with this then, and I agree with this now (except to prevent this sort of abuse in the future, we are working on an arrangement where NO auto-debits can be made from "personal spending account" unless his bank talks to me first). Long story short, he doesn't have many expenses, and combined, (a) the few hundred bucks I transfer every month into his personal account (i.e., the "personal stipend" established by Court Order), combined with (b) the few hundred bucks he earns at his job each month, FAR exceed any expenses he pays for. Over the course of a yaer, he should accumulate about $10K because of the amount transferred into his account and how little he spends on himself.

Anyway, I have no official oversight over this account, and he can technically go to the bank, withdraw every dollar in individual dollar bills, and hand them out to strangers if he wanted to. However, while I don't have official oversight duties over this account, my John Doe called me recently in great distress, because he was told his account had a negative balance, and it should have $15K-$20K in it. I obtained the bank statements (of course, as his Guardian, while I don't control this account, I have the ability to help him out and prevent him from theft, fraud, being taken advantage of, etc.). I'd love to be able to email or speak to you directly over the phone to ask you some specific questions that you may be able to assist me with in identifying exactly which companies have been taking this money from them (many of these companies use aliases, etc.). Specifically, I've done a TON of organizing information and research, and over the past few days I have learned a lot about how this stuff works (in no small part due to the help of your website!). My questions pertain to the interpretation of certain information on bank account statements. Most specifically, my questions pertain to what are known as "Merchant Purchase Terminal" numbers on the accounts, through which the companies can be identified. I knew going in (again, in large part from this website) that these scammer magazine companies use aliases to help them commit their fraud, but these statements have - literally - HUNDREDS of withdrawals from the past year alone. If you were to read the company name listed on the bank statements, you'd think he signed up with 30 different companies (a number of which are notorious scammers who have been identified on this blog). What I found most surprising is that - despite there being hundreds of transactions by about 30 allegedly DIFFERENT magazine service companies, with different business addresses and phone numbers, etc. - of those 30 or so different company names, only FIVE DIFFERENT Merchant Purchase Terminal numbers appear on the bank statements. From what I've learned, companies generally either have their own Merchant Purchase Terminal which they use to make these debits and for other purposes, or contract it out to a third party who provides this service for them. However, this industry in particular HARDLY EVER uses a third party company to handle the transactions that are handled by a Merchant Purchase Terminal.

I figured you may have some additional insight as to "Merchant Purchase Terminals" as they appear on bank statements as a means through which companies can be identified, and aliases used by them can be exposed. My questions are a bit too intricate and specific for this blog, so if you would be kind enough to email me at XXXXXXXXX@XXXXXXXXX to discuss it would be greatly appreciated. As a quid pro quo, my painstaking work in organizing and itemizing the hundreds of transactions into a database over the past few days might be collated in such a way as to be a great use to your website and others trying to "snuff out" this type of fraud.

Best Regards,
also a /D