harrism@aquila.rtp.dg.com (Mike Harris) (04/09/91)
After looking into these from a curiosity standpoint, I finally found out who makes the money. YOU DON'T! Typical response rates are at most 1% at best. You'd have a hard time making money off that at 1-5 dollars a response and 100+ mailings! The people who make the money are ones that provide the "services" required to participate in these schemes. Some of the "reports" you'd receive provide information such as "sources for 'wholesale' printing, envelopes, etc", and, most importantly sources for "HOT mailing lists". Sometimes all or most of the people you are supposed to send to are real, distinct, individuals. Sometimes they are mostly if not all aliases for the same person. Even still, returns aren't good enough to really make it worthwhile. The money makers here are 1) the printers and envelope suppliers, and 2) the mailing list brokers. The printers probably don't make much off this because most people probably take the jobs to a local printer (unless they want to keep their "secret"). The winners here are the mailing list brokers charging $30-$40 for 100-500 names. They are the ones that perpetuate these schemes. Kind of like real estate or stock brokers only worse. There is an excellent guide called "The Truth Behind Chain Letters". It is available through Premier Publishers (a "Prime Source" in that industry if you want to become a dealer...."Repair your Credit, Mail Order Millions, ......) I wanted to figure out the scams and sent off to 10 or so "offers" listed in the back of a New Business Opportunities magazine. I thought it would be fun. It was FUN for about 2 weeks - mail transit time both ways. Eight months later I'm still getting stuff although at the rate of one a week or so. If you *do* want to try this for some silly reason be sure and follow 2 rules: 1) Never send them the $1.00 they ask for in the ad (even though this is most of the $ they will receive!) - they will send you info anyway! and 2) Key your request so you can sort them out. Use a different key for each request so you can really track them. The key also helps you to sort mail into the mixed paper recycle bin. Keying is easy - change your name or your initials - misspell your address in some way - add an "apartment number" - whatever - just make it it different than what normally comes in. As far as the "service" legitimizing the offer - that's bull. The normal schemes are legal anyway - it's the fraud part that originates because the participants are "sold" on the premise that they'll make lots of money. That's the fraud and that is what makes even these "service" offers illegal. If you want more info I might still have some "offers" and "catalogs" available.