I got a phone call saying that I won a $1, 000 shopping spree. She said it was because I used my Visa or Mastercard. I immediately asked what the catch was. She said that, to go along with the shopping spree, they're offering magazine subscriptions for free and that I just need to help with shipping. $3.85 per week for 60 months. I don't know why I didn't stop it right there, but it didn't sound that bad.

She transferred me to a 2nd person who said that they needed to verify my credit card number for identification verification. That made me assume they already had the number on file. I gave the number to her. She then told me that I would have to pay a larger sum per month, but for 20 months. I told her I wasn't interested anymore. She tried to negotiate with me, but I kept telling her "no." Finally, she asked me point blank if I was still interested. I said no and she said "thank you" and hung up.

You would think that after saying I'm not interested, then her hanging up, that it would be the end of it. Right? Nope. I checked my bank statement online and I was charged $39.90. She specifically asked if I was still interested and I specifically, in plain English, said no. I called my bank and canceled the card. The woman from the bank said she knows which company I'm talking about and that they will investigate my claim.

I'm thinking that the change of cards will stop any future charges from this awful company. If they call and try to collect, I'll just refuse to pay. I'd want them to produce a recording of my 2nd conversation. Also, many people said they talked to 3 different people and were asked by a recording to verify the amount of money and the length of the payments. I never got to that phase, but I was charged anyway.

I should be ok, right?

scam very disappointed how this company misleads people and upset how they treated me. Beware of this company!!!

CORRUPT COMPANY!

A family member of mine received a letter and then a phone call stating that i owed over $500 back-due for magazines. These contacts came in late January 2010, and alleged that I had ordered magazines in August that put me in arrears by that much money (who really orders that many magazines?).

The only letter we (she) received was actually a letter to an outside firm that seemed to be a law firm (but i researched them on internet and they are in cahoots collection agency with many complaints against them). This letter appeared to be copied to me.

They left a number, and I called and reached the collections department - where they proceeded to shout and bully me and claimed to have me on a voice recording ordering these magazines. I kept demanding that they play the recording (because I know I didn't order any magazines). They drew me out in conversation, shouting over my assertions that I never ordered any magazines. At one point I said i felt my blood pressure shooting up (which i did), and that i maybe i would have my lawyer call them. and then a supervisor, "alicia" came on the phone, played the recording (which sounded perhaps like a digital piece-together of my voice or that of a child).

She acknowedged that the voice was not mine, and became very nice. She told me that the person who ordered the magazines had a lot of information about me (which is not true, since they didn't have my address or phone number). She also said that I still had to provide a police report by friday for them to drop the charges, and she gave me this information:
the phone number where they were ordered from (a disconnected phone number in my area)
the address where they were sent (a non-existent address)
the last 4 digits of the alleged visa on which these items were ordered, which she stated was in my name (hence their attempt to collect the balance from me.

I filed a police report, and the sergeant detective made multiple attempts to contact them. he uncovered the facts that the phone and address were fictitious. meanwhile, i checked into my credit history (i had recently ordered a credit report) - no such visa was in my name.

In the middle of moving and dealing with multiple other stressors, that could ultimately cost me money, i had to spend the afternoon changing bank accounts and filing a police report.

I faxed the police report thursday from work.

i called friday to confirm the matter was closed. Alicia then claimed that she never received the police report (i had confirmation printed out). I told her I was not at work near a fax, and the next time I could re-fax it was monday, and then she again began threatening to take action against me. She accused me of "putting words in her mouth" when i stated that there was no such visa in my name, stating that she never said it was in my name (why would they be attempting to bill me, if the visa info on the order was from someone else?). she also started shouting at me again, and briefly alleged that she did speak with the detective investigating (so then, she


CORRUPT COMPANY!

A family member of mine received a letter and then a phone call stating that i owed over $500 back-due for magazines. These contacts came in late January 2010, and alleged that I had ordered magazines in August that put me in arrears by that much money (who really orders that many magazines?).

The only letter we (she) received was actually a letter to an outside firm that seemed to be a law firm (but i researched them on internet and they are in cahoots collection agency with many complaints against them). This letter appeared to be copied to me.

They left a number, and I called and reached the collections department - where they proceeded to shout and bully me and claimed to have me on a voice recording ordering these magazines. I kept demanding that they play the recording (because I know I didn't order any magazines). They drew me out in conversation, shouting over my assertions that I never ordered any magazines. At one point I said i felt my blood pressure shooting up (which i did), and that i maybe i would have my lawyer call them. and then a supervisor, "alicia" came on the phone, played the recording (which sounded perhaps like a digital piece-together of my voice or that of a child).

She acknowedged that the voice was not mine, and became very nice. She told me that the person who ordered the magazines had a lot of information about me (which is not true, since they didn't have my address or phone number). She also said that I still had to provide a police report by friday for them to drop the charges, and she gave me this information:
the phone number where they were ordered from (a disconnected phone number in my area)
the address where they were sent (a non-existent address)
the last 4 digits of the alleged visa on which these items were ordered, which she stated was in my name (hence their attempt to collect the balance from me.

she refused to give me any information about the visa (what bank it was from, etc) -saying she didn't have that info. when i asked her if she could get that info for the police, she said yes.

I filed a police report, and the sergeant detective made multiple attempts to contact them. (a line that initally worked for me that was what she gave as her direct line no longer went through. so he and i ultimately reached her through the company's main number).

the detective uncovered the facts that the phone and address were fictitious. meanwhile, i checked into my credit history (i had recently ordered a credit report) - no such visa was in my name.

In the middle of moving and dealing with multiple other stressors, that could ultimately cost me money, i had to spend the afternoon changing bank accounts and filing a police report.

I faxed the police report thursday from work.

i called friday to confirm the matter was closed. Alicia then claimed that she never received the police report (i have fax confirmation printed out). I told her I was not at work near a fax, and the next time I could re-fax it was monday, and then she again began threatening to take action against me. She accused me of "putting words in her mouth" when i stated that there was no such visa in my name, stating that she never said it was in my name (why would they be attempting to bill me, if the visa info on the order was from someone else?). she also started shouting at me again, and briefly alleged that she did speak with the detective investigating (so then, she should know that the report was filed and not need it, right?)

i told her that if she took further action, i would look into suing her. she told me not to threaten her. i wasn't. i was just keeping her in the loop about the consequences her company would face if they further pursue this fraudulent behavior.

What about all the vulnerable people who couldn't defend themselves against them?

I bet there's a class action lawsuit in here somewhere. I literally had a blood pressure incident and woke up with more gray hair after dealing with "alicia" from this company.

Anyone who is still getting called by those F**kers and anyone else who wants to join a good cause do me a favor and voice your complaints at http://mtareacommunications.com/ that way you can skip the bi*chy talks with those sl*ts at the company and add credibility to your complaints. If you go to this site it'll back up eveything we've been saying. These red neck f*cking sons of b*tchs don't even have any useful info on the site. their layout is crappy and they have a non existant magazine list. Looking at this site makes me happy I boned the living sh*t out of them legaly. Though if anyone has the time and skill, feel free to hack their another website of theirs at http://www.mountainareacommunications.com/ Those who are not so computer savy, call your state's attorny general, the Federal Trade Commision, The Better Buisness Buero, The FBI, and your local sheriff to give these f*ckers such a puckered a** hole when they get done with you that their company will get what it deserves. Remember they've tapped out before so they sure as f*ck have the ability to do it again. I'm not just calling for those unfortunate people who were scammed to help out the cause, i'm calling for every single person who supports websites like this and generally want to bring justice to the world. I leave you proud people who will hopefully join me in my fight to kill this blood thirsty company with a few quotes.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.

Thou shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a perpetrator. Above all, thou shalt not be a bystander.

You just need to be a flea against injustice. Enough committed fleas biting strategically can make even the biggest dog uncomfortable and transform even the biggest nation.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.

One last time I plead, I ask, hell, I demand that everyone who even sympathises alittle with this message to join my fight. This isn't a cause anymore, it's a FU*CKING WAR!!!

After reading all the scam, complaint and rip off reports regarding both Mountain Area Communications and United Benefit Advantage I am outraged that I hadn’t heard of them before. I was also sucked in to their world of lies and scams! I got a call like many of you from a lady congratulating me on winning a $1, 000 shopping spree. Unfortunately for me I thought it was legit because I had just entered to win $1, 000 spree at an event I attended. She never said the name of the company in the voice message she left (should have known then), but I thought oh cool I must have won I’ll call back. That is where I made the mistake! The woman that answered sounded like the woman that left the message (this was obvious because they all have very thick southern accents). Anyway she went on to say I was called because I did win but I had to do something first, agree to order magazines. I read magazines all the time and have several subscriptions so initially I said no.

She went on to explain that the shopping spree of $1000 was my gift for helping them circulate magazines in my area (big lie). I’m a softy so I thought ok I can see the value in helping out a new company (I don’t know why I made that assumption they have been up to this scam for years as I later found out). So I eventually agree. She tells me that I will get several magazines for about $4 per week but instead of paying every week it would be $20/mo, or better still pay about $50/mo every month for only 20 months and get 60 months of magazines. Geez that’s a lot of numbers but I still thought ok I’ll get my favorite mags for years and they will be paid in full long before then. So the lady said ok I’m excited you agree but we need to confirm with our supervisor and she will call you back.

Just then something felt not quite right. But I got a call immediately from the “supervisor” and she confirmed my order. I wish I had spoken up then, but she was nice so I went on with the order. About 30 minutes later after doing the math correctly on my own I realized this was not a bargain. $50/mo x’s 20/mo = $1000 hey wait a min. Most of my favorite magazines cost on average $10-$20 a year! Hmm $20/yr x’s 5 yrs = $100, even if I got 5 magazine subscriptions that’s only $500. Ok so I called back immediately and said I changed my mind I don’t see the value let’s cancel. The nice little ladies on the phone were gone! I got the run around and all of a sudden they couldn’t see my order and told me to call back in 2 hrs. I called back they said oh it hasn’t come to our office yet please wait (lies). The final call that day the same day the order was placed, I was told oh just call back 1st thing in the morning and you can cancel with our supervisor. Another lie I, called 1st thing in the morning because by now I’m convinced this is a scam and was told I couldn’t cancel because my order was processed. Now how can that be when just the evening before they had no record of the order yet and it had not been processed? She went on to say it would cost me all the money up front because all 5 yrs had been prepaid. Of course I’m not going to pay that, so she suggested I take a cheaper package since there was no way I could cancel.
My heart hurt I knew they scammed but I agreed to the cheaper package. I finally got an envelope from them on August 24th the envelope was dated August 7th and I placed my order on Aug 13th ok this is definitely not right!!! Then to top it off there is no gift card or certificate just some paper saying sign this release to receive your $1000 shopping spree and mail it back to us yeah right! It looks like something my 9 year old cousin could type in MS word add a pick and a few lines for info. I can tell it’s just a copy one of thousands I’m sure. Of course the list of magazines looks the same way and worse there are only a few titles listed. If they are pre paying for you to have a bunch of magazines at a supposed low price then why the heck aren’t there more mags to choose from? My guess is that most magazine companies would be happy to be a part of a legit program that will prepay them for 5 years of magazines. So why aren’t they? Think about it, any way I was not interested in any they listed. I called the next evening to cancel asked for a supervisor who of course was not available, so I asked that employee to cancel and she said ok it’s done. Big surprise! I then asked for a confirmation of that in writing she said hold on only to come back with an excuse that they do not send anything in writing (Just another example of a company up to no good). She did give me the cancellation #. I called my CC company to let them know and they said if I do get anymore charges and I have that cancellation number they will send it to the fraud department and dispute it for me. I hope these details help. PLEASE DONT FALL FOR THIS YOU WILL REGRET IT!!! The number I called is 866-900-2719. I will watch my statements like a hawk to ensure they don’t get away with any charges.

I think it hilarious that the “employees” are giving their rebuttals to all the complaints that say they were scammed and that bad mouth the company, but for those that simply want to talk to someone and are asking for phone numbers and more information they get nothing. Not even another worthless rebuttal! Please see my report on the affiliated company United Benefit Advantage, the two are working together. If you have ordered with Mountain Area Communications then you likely have charges from UBA as well. Good luck and GOD Bless. To the devoted employees FYI I have the names and recorded conversations of everyone I have spoken with over the last few days so please stop your lies because each of you contradicted each other. You need to perfect your scam there are big holes! My attorney has been CC’d.