I too am an office manager and deal with this company every single day!! My husband who is a Sergeant with our local police department has told me that no department he knows endorses this magazine!! The State of Texas has a law enforcement magazine sent that doesn't have oilfield advertising and pertains to uhhhh LAW ENFORCEMENT.  What a concept! Why on earth would law enforcement need oilfield services?  This Journal magazine is just another company trying to bleed unsuspecting companies with devious practices!

I received a phone call from Anthony Roberts from "The Journal: The Voice of Law Enforcement". The gentleman offered to place an ad for us in their publication that goes to law enforcement personnel. He did not indicate where it is distributed or provide circulation numbers. He did not indicate why we would want to advertise. There is little or no reason for us to advertise in this type of publication as we provide surveying services for the oil and gas industry only in Texas.

He indicated that we had advertised with them before. In fact, we have not advertised with the publication before. I said he can send more information via email, as my policy is not to discuss anything with someone over the phone that I do not know. He then asked for my date of birth, which he would add to the email so I knew it was from him. This was a red flag for me. I gave him a phony date of birth. I never received an email. We did receive an invoice for $272.25 about a week later. I received a follow up voice mail message from Anthony Roberts asking if payment had been sent, and that I had provided my birth date as an authorization code.

I called Mr Roberts today and notified him that we did not place an ad, but just wanted more information. He said we had placed an ad and gave my birth date as an authorization code.I told them we did not place and ad. After some discussion he said he would cancel the order. An order I never placed. I feel these aggressive and deceptive sales tactics are unethical and arguably illegal.

Received a call from "Evan Stroud" with "Jim Wells" 800-226-9130 extension 112. Wanted us to do advertising. Asked for the owner by name. Said he had called the previous Monday. I told him we do not do advertising besides in the phone books. He said he knew he had talked to me because he had my name marked off. I told him I keep a phone log and there is not record of him calling on Monday. The he asked if we were not interested in helping our local law enforcement. I told him again that we do not advertise in this manner.  Now I have read other posts and see that I am not the only one this scam was tried on.
Be aware!

I received a call from this number today. Ask for the General Manager by name. Stated his name is Anthony and he is with Jim Wells. Ask if General Manager (by name) was available. I told him no, could I take a message. "Anthony" said "Ya know, I am just going to go grab some chow and I will get back in touch after.  I laughed at him and said ok thank you and hung up.
These people waste a lot of our time. Please STOP calling.

It is a real scam, a person called Micky has been calling us asking for money, talking very confusing, and I did not understand in his first call what it was about, and I told him, that we are not interested in whatever he was trying to sell, next day call again, and He was demanding money for an invoice, which I have never see, and not know what for, so I told him, that we are not subscript to any magazine, journal or anything like that, next day he left a message demanding his money for an add....., add that the owner never authorize.  This is real crazy, they are scamming using the name of the police, sheriff or something like that, to scare the people and get their money.  PLEASE STOP THIS PEOPLE!

We've had the same experience as the complaints above, continuous rude and harassing phone calls about a bill that was NEVER authorized for, as Mark Roberts put it, "reserving ad space."   Mark Roberts other number is 713-586-7500.

This company has called us for two years. I have called them many times to have our number removed. They call and ask for the owner like they know him but refuse to leave a message. I am fixing to start calling them and harrassing them. I have had enough of these people!!! One time they actually called demanding money from our company. I had to get ugly with them! I am fixing to get real ugly with them the next time they call. I have had enough for two years!!!!

I received the same call for a donation and i just say no

Mr. Roberts continues to call on a daily basis trying to collect on a pledge that the Owner of the company didn't authorize. Keeps threatening to send us to collection, but we never received any goods...it was a pledge from a former employee. I have received multiple calls a day asking about this check being sent out & I repeatedly have to tell him the same thing... Called and spoke with a supervisor to inform of the situation / harassment & he assured me that we would no longer be receiving any more calls.

Our company fell for this before I began working here and had been advertising in this "magazine."  I spoke with Al Gatson previously and told him that we wanted to cancel our advertising.  At that time, he said that they were sending a bill, but it was for next year's ad.  Since we were cancelling, he said that we could throw that bill away, which I did.

Since that time, I have received numerous calls from him trying to collect.  Each time, I remind him of what he said and he gets complete amnesia.

Very Rude, called 4 times back to back and would hang up everytime I asked who was calling...could hardly understand him. Sounded very muffled.

Just called my family business several times. I have had trouble in the past with them being rude. This time I used our call block service *60 to block their number. Hope this with help stop them.

I just received another call from this number  (The Journal) scam police magazine. I have asked Louise to remove my number the last round of calls I received from them. Evidently she didn't do as I requested so I am about to contact the Texas State Attorney General's office on this and report them. My cell phone number is on the National Do Not Call List. These people don't care, they just want to scam me out of my hard earned money!! Good luck Steve Inman (owner of The Journal) after I report your behind lets see how many phone calls I receive!!!

Stop the Phone calls to my place of employment!!!

The Journal publishes a magazine three times a year. Although they publish a  book they don't give any of the money to any law enforcement organizations. They keep 100 percent of the money for themselves. They have been in trouble with the Federal Trade Commission. They call my cell phone every time they get ready to do another book. I am sick and tired of Al Gatson calling me and harassing me on my cell phone. I called their office today and told them to take my number off their list that I was on the National Do Not Call List and would report them to the Texas Attorney General's office if I received one more phone call. The man that owns the company goes by the name of Steve Inman and you can check out the articles on the internet about his company settling for hundreds of thousands of dollars when sued by the state of Texas for fraudulent practices! They absolutely were sued in 1997 and settled for a huge amount of money. The FTC set up a booth in their office for a while and monitored all their calls to make sure they were cold calling. Now that they are no longer in the office monitoring them they have gone back to the same old scam-calling saying we already authorized  the advertisement.

To "Stop The Scam" that posted on April 7, 2011-You are absolutely correct by filing your complaint with the FTC. I know these people are definitely scam artists and know exactly what they do. To everyone that reads these posts please do your part to put these people out of business! File complaints,  report them to the Attorney General! Steve Inman makes a fortune off this scam!

I had the exact same experience. Thanks for your post Michael! You saved me the time of typing up an identical post. These folks are scammers.... And trying to use law enforcement as a way to intimidate and make their preposterous proposal (sending them $150.00) sound more legit.

Businesses and schools are being warned about cold callers selling ads for a bogus 'police magazine'.

The Police Journal
Sale
Advertising

I received a call asking for a donation of $175 to support the Police Journal and I would get advertising and my copy of the Journal. They got my name from a chamber of commerce member listing, but the caller never identified where (location) he was calling from, although I asked him. Caller identified himself as Mike Huey. Is this a scam?

And it's started up again. This time it's not for the boss but using my name. I handle a lot of clients for our company so when someone starts off with familiarity and using my full name I assume it's a client. Like any business contact would. These guys know this and then dare to act really rude and put out when I say I'm not interested in advertising, stickers, or giving them money. Wtf?

The sales pitch made me laugh though. "I'm calling from the police magazine. You know the one where we tell you to put the police stickers in all private vehicles in the country?" Seriously? You tell us to? What balls.

The Journal is a known scam with the Federal Trade Commission for illegal business practice, misrepresentation of law enforcement agencies and unsolicited invoicing. They were prosecuted in 1997.  Please do as I did and register your complaint with the Federal Trade Commission so they can track this guy down again.

https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/

Again. Rude. Gruff. It's been going on for days now. Won't remove us from their list and won't take no for an answer. The guy that calls keeps pretending he knows the boss but wont leave his own name, or why he's calling, or where he's calling from. This is ridiculous harassment plain and simple.

To this calling company: It's an 800 number morons, on call display. These days it's not exactly brain surgery to figure out who's calling you or that they are calling from a telemarketer number and not some long lost friend. Though a co worker almost gave the bosses cell number out. Jesus Christ.

Is there any way to block a specific number from calling a business?

Rude Mofos. Very very rude.

These people call everyday. The guy who calls me is Al Gatson. I swear he either calls while he is eating luch or sunflowerseeds. He does not want to leave a message. I have finally got his company, The Journal, out of him. I tell him he needs to leave a message or he will not get through to the boss. He says he will call back. I tell him the boss is in a meeting and he hangs up and calls directly back. I called their office to have our number removed from their list, we will see how that goes.

Have received 3 calls this afternoon, and have left no messages.

This company is by no means affiliated with the Mississippi Wildlife Enforcement Officer's Association.  It seems this "Journal" is known for this type of stuff and when they are caught they change names and states.  If you or anyone else have any questions about the MWEOAI's validity, I encourage you to check out our website at MWEOAI.com, call 1-800-657-5693 and ask for Bryan Elkins, call a local conservation officer or MWEOAI board member, or finally call the MS Secretary of State's office to check us out.  I am responding here in hopes of keeping someone from being scammed.  If someone calls you and can't give you a name, phone number, and address to check with the Secretary of State's office, please hang up the phone and report it to the proper authorities.

Thank You,

Jason Blaylock
Secretary/Treasurer MWEOAI

This guy calling himself Chad Avery called about a month ago requesting an ad in our LOCAL police force magazine including the state police.  At the time of the call I told him it may be possible for us to purchase this ad but would have to get back with him  He called back repeatedly asking for debit or credit card information.  Today I informed him that he was NOT getting any payment for something we did NOT purchase (we sent NOTHING in for advetisement use) and I would be alerting the State police regarding the calls.  He hung up.

Same thing as everyone else. He called our family business asked for my husband. I told the guy on the phone that he was in the back shop, and I could take a message & have my husband call him back. He tells me, I will hold. I told him again, I could take a message, b/c my husband is busy and will have to call him back. He said "Fantastic" I will just send someone over there to take care of this, and hung up.
The guy is rude.

very,very, rude!!! They will not stop calling. How can I get them to stop? I asked to be removed from the call list, but they still keep calling. Does people really make sales by being so rude?

They have given false information about how they know the owner of the company I work for.  Not even remotely true.  Very dishonest people and disrespectful!