Coloradans and people across the United States will soon receive money as part of a $1 million settlement made between two magazine publishers to the Colorado and Wyoming s Attorneys General Offices, it was announced Thursday.Â
The settlement comes after both states filed lawsuits against Atlantic Publishers Group, LLC and Publishers Partnership Services, LLC after they sent millions of deceptive mailers to consumers across the country.Â
In one instance, a 94-year-old woman reported to the Colorado Attorney General Office that she sent more than $60 after receiving what she thought was a renewal notice for Time magazine. The next month she received an additional renewal notice and officials told her she had not paid, according to a news release.
By Ellen Fike, Cowboy State Daily
Wyoming will receive a settlement of $500,000 in a lawsuit alleging two companies targeted customers nationwide by selling overpriced magazine subscriptions using deceptive mailers designed to look like renewal notices for customers’ legitimate existing subscriptions.
Wyoming joined Colorado in this lawsuit against Atlantic Publishers and Publishers Partnership Services and will also receive $500,000 in the settlement.
Both states’ attorney general offices, as well as the Better Business Bureau, received hundreds of complaints, mainly from people over 60, about the mailers.
One customer, a 94-year-old woman, reported to the Colorado Attorney General’s Office that she sent more than $60 to Atlantic Publishers when she received what she thought was a renewal notice for her “Time”magazine subscription, but when she received the real renewal notice the next month, she called the magazine and was told they had not received her payment.
Wyoming, Colorado to receive $1M, settling lawsuits of magazine scams targeting elderly consumers By Brendan LaChance on May 11, 2021
(Shutterstock)
CASPER, Wyo. Wyoming Attorney General Bridget Hill and Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser announced on Tuesday that a joint settlement has been reached in lawsuits filed against two companies that targeted consumers with “deceptive mailers that sold overpriced magazine subscriptions designed to look like renewal notices for consumers’ legitimate existing subscriptions.”
The lawsuits claimed that from 2016-2019, Atlantic Publishers Group, LLC, which operated out of Colorado, and Publishers Partnership Services, LLC, which operated out of Wyoming, sent millions of deceptive mailers to consumers across the country.