Three arrested for deceptive sales

Young adults said magazine sales were school fund-raiser

shannon kelly

The Hub

Thinking they were contributing to a school club, at least eight Rumson residents bought magazines from door-to-door salespeople last week only to learn the sales pitch was a sham.

According to police, a group of about five to six young people posing as members of the Princeton University debating team went door to door around Rumson late last week selling magazines. They allegedly told customers that they were neighborhood residents and were raising money to fund an upcoming trip overseas for the university debating team.

Police say they know of eight residents who were taken in by the story and spent, in some cases, upward of $150 on magazines.

Last Thursday Rumson police arrested two of the solicitors, Michael Brams, 19, of Pennsylvania and Melissa George, 18, of Louisiana for soliciting without a permit and using deceptive business practices.

According to Sgt. Daniel Petrucelli, the magazine sales were legit, but not the story behind them.

"You were going to get your magazines," he said. "They are not stealing your money, just using deceptive practices."

Both Brams and George told Petrucelli that they were independent contractors for a company called Elite Sales Inc. According to their supervisor, Elite is a subsidiary of World Wide Circulation Inc., both located in St. Clare, Mich.

The two accused allegedly used the same story about the Princeton debating team, claiming to live in Rumson. They told police that Elite doesn’t tell them to use stories like this, but that the sellers know if they don’t sell magazines, they won’t be able to keep their jobs.

"Kids know the likelihood of selling magazines is not good enough," Petrucelli said. "The kids find out that they have to do this … they know the person is more likely to buy a magazine if you say you are a neighbor, a neighborhood kid."

Brams and others had also been arrested in Point Pleasant Beach for soliciting without a permit the day before.

Brams and George turned over the checks they received from residents and police returned them.

Petrucelli said all the victims to whom he returned a check said they hadn’t wanted the magazines to begin with, but had only made the purchase because they thought they were helping students from their hometown.

Police say after they contacted World Wide, a company official said that anyone else who felt they had been sold a magazine deceptively could call them and receive a refund.

The charges against the solicitors are minor offenses as disorderly persons. A court date was set for April 12.

Police said the arrested were cooperative, but it was more difficult to get a straight story from those who allegedly supervise them.

The parent company, World Wide Circulation, which processes the magazine orders, insulates itself from incidents like this, Petrucelli said, by using a series of subcontractors, beginning with Elite, the sales arm of the organization.

Elite employees separate subcontractors to sell magazines, to supervise the solicitors and to drive the solicitors.

The Hub’s call to World Wide looking to speak to someone in Elite was received by a receptionist who took a message.

Later Lori Skretta, manager of the group selling in Rumson, later called The Hub from the Berkeley Carteret Hotel in Asbury Park where the group was staying.

Skretta said she was "just flabbergasted" at the incident and said that she was unaware the solicitors felt pressured to sell.

According to Skretta, who said she once sold magazines herself, the sellers work on commission only and travel around the country together in a group of about eight, usually for four months at a time.

The solicitors are dropped off in a neighborhood in the morning by another subcontractor and are picked up at the end of the day.

Skretta told The Hub last Friday that the sellers are supposed to do their work in a lawful manner. She said she provides the solicitors with borough phone numbers but they are required to get their own permits.

She said the sellers, who must be at least 18, choose where to sell by picking "random areas," sometimes depending on the weather and how large the area is.

In the case of the members of her group who were arrested in Rumson, Skretta said, that the sellers shouldn’t have been in Rumson and that they "didn’t know where the dividing line was." Skretta couldn’t say what town the solicitors should have been in.

The next day Rumson police arrested another member of the group on the same charges. Jessica Heather Franzino, 19, of California allegedly used a similar story to sell but said she was from Rutgers University.

According to Petrucelli, there were reports of the same solicitors in Holmdel and Little Silver last week.

Petrucelli notes that on the receipts given out with magazine purchases the return policy is printed, and there is a statement saying the sale is "not affiliated with schools, student charities or fund-raisers."

Unfortunately, Petrucelli said, consumers don’t usually read their receipts, and when they do, it’s after the fact.

His advice to residents who encounter door-to-door salespeople is to check to see if they have a permit and have a "buyer beware" attitude, especially when the sale is billed as a fund-raiser.

"Be careful when a salesman is using that kind of pitch," he said, "because you’re getting sucked in."