Caller ID shows name as PUBSCO.  They are trying to get involved in my renewing Consumer Reports saying my renewal needs to be made through them.  I do not know how they found out about my subscription or the renewal date.  This seems like some type of scam, but I have not ordered or renewed anything through them.

Got a call telling me that my subscriptions were expiring.  I told the person I was not interested at this time as it would be well into next year before the expiration date.  He tried to flatter me with telling me that he knew I wasn't old enough for a senior discount but because I had taken the magazines so long I would be eligible for the discount.  I told him again that I was not interested and he finally hung up on me!

I received two calls from this number on Friday evening. The first time I ignored it and they hung up when the answering machine asked for a message and listed the as "Pubsco Inc.". About an hour later, he called again and I answered it because I suspected that they would continue to call until someone answered. They claimed to represent Dell Magazines Direct and wanted talk to me about renewing Analog and Asimov's magazines. At that point, I declined to deal with them because the publisher of these magazines have repeatedly published warnings about phone scams regarding subscriptions in each issue of their magazines. Come Monday, I will called Dell Publishers and ask about are these people.

This is an interesting one: the phone number is registered as an AT&T landline to a Houston, TX resident. I'll not mention that family's name and address although it is easy enough to find on whitepages.com. When searching for Pubsco Inc in Houston, initially brings up a dialysis service company with address of 221 Fm 1960 Rd W, Houston, TX. But another listing for Pubsco, Inc links to a website called ripoff report {www.ripoffreport.com/ r/ publishers-pubsco/ houston-texas-77090/ publishers-pubsco-company-is-a-scam-they-will-let-you-work-a-day-or-t wo-fire-you-and-refu-599645}. This person filed this complaint in 2012 and lists the address where worked as 221 Fm 1960 Rd W, Houston, TX!! Although listed number on the complaint shows 281 772 3605, hard to get around the similar addresses. Possibly both operations are actively working in same location--one in front, one in backroom? Whatever case, something very fishy going on here.  

Assuming that registered owner of  281 537 7971 reads 800notes.com, then you may want to do some research to protect your good name. IF, on the other hand someone in your household is using your landline phone to actually make calls on behalf of Pubsco, you will want to give much thought to reconsider your actions. As the ripoff report.com article states, there are a lot of issues with calling on behalf of a company that attempts to resell magazine subscriptions. Besides, Federal Trade Commission investigator will want to "chat" with you about making calls in violation of Do No Call legislation.

Consumer Reports is one of several publications that have warned their subscribers to be ready for correspondence or calls from someone who claims to be with a "subscription renewal company." The problem is that utilizing a "reseller" such as PUBSCO involves many added costs far beyond the price of subscribing directly to the publication.