By David
aka Highspeedhijinks
I get lots of offers for magazines in the mail, but I got one on Friday that seemed a little too good to be true. The "National Street Machine Club" sent me a long letter implying that I'd been accepted to an "elite" membership program that was only for true car enthusiasts. Their offer stated that by joining this club, I would be sent car-related merchandise to try out on my car for free—things like exhaust systems, cleaning supplies, and wheels (yes, these are the items they specified in the letter), and that after trying them out, I could keep these items free of charge in exchange for filling out a brief survey on each one. Sounds good, right? Of course there's a catch (continued...)
...and it's this: to sign up, you have to pay them an annual membership fee of 12 bucks. This is where the scam comes in: there is no club, and they don't send you anything except two made-up magazines called Street Performance. By the time you get your magazines, they send you a bill for $24.00 calling it a prepaid, two-year membership. It doesn't stop there. Now that they've sent you this bill and you politely ask them to cancel your membership, they follow up with a threatening letter informing you that a collection agency will be notified and your credit will be ruined. Basically, they're trying to bully you into paying for two years' worth of membership in a club that doesn't exist. Extra sketchy: they only take cash or check.
I was lucky, though: googling the club name and the word "scam" swiftly revealed a number of posts on a blog dedicated to protecting consumers from rip-offs like this. Just read some of the stories and you'll see what kind of bullet I dodged. It's hard to believe that people invest this much time creating scams this elaborate, but it happens and the only way to avoid them is to spread the word. So here it is: Stay away from the "National Street Machine Club," it's a scam!
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