Complaints: Company trying to sell Review-Journal subscriptions in scam

More than 200 people have reported an unauthorized company claiming to sell Las Vegas Review-Journal subscriptions has tried to scam them, in what appears to be a nationwide scheme.

Review-Journal subscribers and others have called questioning mailings and faxes from Readers Payment Services. The company is not affiliated with the newspaper or with its parent company, Stephens Media, according to Joe Robidoux, the Review-Journal’s vice president of circulation and audience development.

The invoices say “The Las Vegas Review-Journal” in plain type and list renewal rates ranging from $199 to $369.

Robidoux said the newspaper would not send out invoices via mail unless requested. A real bill would have Review-Journal and Las Vegas Sun logos. The annual renewal fee is $223.

There was no data breach, Robidoux said. He does not know how the scammers acquired contact information.

Most complaints came from Henderson and Summerlin, Robidoux said, and most of the callers were seniors.

Las Vegas police have not received reports about the scam, according to a department spokesman. But they remind people to protect financial information.

Readers Payment Services is associated with a few different names, including Associated Publishers Network. Their mailing address is a box at a UPS store at 850 S. Boulder Highway. Readers Payment Sevices representatives could not be reached for comment.

The earliest report of a complaint on this company goes back to 2011, according to Better Business Bureau for Southern Nevada spokeswoman Rhonda Mettler.

The subscription scam has been reported in more than 30 states. Other targeted newspapers include the Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal.

Associated Publishers Network is known to send invoices from various magazine publications, including the New Yorker, Time and the Wall Street Journal, Mettler said.

Multiple company names make it hard to track who’s in charge, Mettler said. But out of 290 complaints against Associated Publishers Network filed with the Better Business Burea of Southern Nevada, the company has responded to at least 87.

According to a Better Business Bureau review, a typical response from Associated Publishers Network states that the company is recognized as a third party permitted by a clearing house that is contracted with a magazine publisher. As a third party, they do not directly communicate with the publisher. Subscription offers are sent as a marketing piece, and no one is obligated to respond.

The company has provided refunds for those who have filed complaints, Mettler said.