Prank subs no laughing matter

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, July 1, 1995 by Lorraine Calvacca

Theresa McConnville just may be eligible for The Guinness Book of World Records for receiving the most magazine subscriptions ever. Over the past 13 years, the Camarillo, California-based attorney has received more than 50,000 titles at her home and office.

The distinction, however, is not a welcome one: The inundation was the result of a relentless harassment campaign a disgruntled client of the lawyer's ex-partner. It finally stopped only after her harasser was caught, prosecuted by the Ventura County district attorney's office, and ultimately deported to his native Philippines.

Following the conviction, McConnville received about 20 calls from people around the country who were experiencing the same thing. "The industry has to change its practices to not be used as a tool for revenge," she says. "There's something wrong when anyone can just check off `bill me.'"

Legal action

Publishers say that cases like McConnville's are the exception. Prank orders are usually obvious - a subscription in the name of Mickey Mouse or ex-President Ronald Reagan. But at least one state considers the problem serious enough to have taken legal action.

In May, the Colorado Legislature approved what is informally known as the "Unsolicited Magazine" bill, after a number of state representatives were barraged by prank subscriptions. "I Was getting everything from Essence to Life to Skiing to Parents," says Mary Ellen Epps, a sponsor of the bill. "Every week there was a new one."

After receiving numerous invoices and threatening letters from a collection agency, Epps contacted the U.S. attorney general's office, which then wrote to publishers to stop the billing. "My concern was that senior citizens who got unsolicited magazines might just pay out of fear," Epps explains.

The Colorado legislation, which goes into effect this month, states that publishers and their agents must cancel a subscription if an invoice is returned marked "cancel" - cancelling publishers say has long been traditional business practice. Violations of the law constitute a Class 2 petty offense as well as a deceptive trade practice under the state's Consumer Protection Act - punishable by a fine of up to $250. The original draft called for a heavier fine and a preaddressed confirmation card enclosed with every invoice, but publishers balked, citing costs and the potential impact on response rates.

Still, what about the California man who received copies of Today's Christian Woman, among others, bearing ethnic slurs such as "Jewboy" on the labels?

"You have to consider that employees are handling 1,000 to 2,000 cards a day, so it's possible that they would not catch something like that," says Trudy Brian, fulfillment manager at Des Moines, Iowa-based Communications Data Services, which handles Today's Christian Woman. "It's a heads-down operation for performance pay."

Fulfillment companies typically place prank orders in a "pandering" file, which also contains the names of people who repeatedly fill out blow-in cards to get magazines and then cancel their orders when the invoices start to pile up.

"I think [unsolicited magazines] are a small problem in the overall picture," says Michael Pashby, senior vice president of the Magazine Publishers of America. "Unfortunately, it's a big problem for the people it happens to."

Pashby argues that legislating the issue is overkill. But Bill Coffman, director of sales and marketing at Kable Fulfillment Services in Mt. Morris, Illinois, doesn't think it would hurt publishers, fulfillment houses and other direct-mail businesses to start a dialog on the subject.

"If legislators are passing laws on [unsolicited subscriptions]," Coffman says, "I believe there is some merit to getting together and finding out the scope of the problem."