Ever  booked an advertisement in Cat Fancier Monthly magazine? If you answered yes, you may be among the many Australian businesses falling victim to media scams designed to trick you into spending money on advertisements in fake publications.

Thankfully, Cat Fancier Monthly magazine is not real. But that’s also the problem. The Circulations Audit Board (CAB) estimates that more than 150 fake publications are operating in Australia, deceiving businesses into placing ads that never reach their intended audience, and into paying invoices that seem to be for real advertisements.

Australian businesses are losing more than 29 million dollars per year on media scams – a figure NSW Fair Trading says may just be the tip of the iceberg. “The scam figures we have are very conservative, given that many businesses aren’t even aware they’ve been scammed and many others prefer not to acknowledge it,” says Don Jones, assistant commissioner for compliance and enforcement. “We’re not talking immediately obvious scams – often the people behind them are using real business processes as a template, to appeal to business sense. Whether it is paying to advertise jobs in fake classifieds or placing ads in magazines that simply don’t exist, the risks for business are great.”

In a world saturated by businesses trying to capture revenue from other businesses, it is more important than ever to stand out from the crowd and sing your hedonic song to cashed-up consumers. But instead, customers are wary, and shying away from spending hard-earned dollars by the fear of not making the right choices. 

Make the right choice and invest your marketing resources into advertising with magazines that are legitimate, effective and well-respected in the industry, such as Marketing magazine.