Readers,
Sorry for the wide-crossposting of this message. I'm hoping to alert the
bionet.* and sci.* communities about a possible telephone scam involving
the renewal of journal subscriptions.
On 8/3/99 I received a phone call at my home. The caller claimed to be
from "Nature Publishing" (not MacMillan Publishing) and told me that my
Nature subscription needed to be renewed. He said that he could do this
over the phone, and that if I renewed by credit card, I would get a 10%
discount. I claimed to be busy at the moment but asked for a number to
call him back. After hanging up, I called the 800 number and got a
non-descript voice mail system.
I've contacted the American Rep for Nature and they say that they do not
solicit by phone or renew by phone.
I'm guessing that this individual has a Nature subscriber list and is
cross-referencing it with a telephone number database (my Nature
subscription goes to my academic office, not to my home) in an effort to
obtain credit card numbers. The scam could involve other journals beside
Nature that sell their subscription lists.
BOTTOM LINE: Don't give out your credit card number on the phone!
Again my apologies for the wide crosspost. I'm hoping this notice will
save some people grief.
Thanks,
Brian W. Tague
Department of Biology
Wake Forest University
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