Alleged Jewish newspaper scam creeps into S.F.

An alleged Jewish newspaper scam that has plagued Toronto for years is infiltrating the Bay Area.

At least one local company says it has been targeted with invoices for ads placed in a publication calling itself the “National Jewish News.”

McKessonHBOC, a pharmaceutical distributor based in San Francisco, received an invoice from the newspaper’s New York “corporate headquarters” earlier this month.

The company, however, says it never placed this ad. And what’s more, Canadian journalists, U.S. and Canadian officials, and now, McKessonHBOC, say they do not believe the publication exists.

Copies of the newspaper do not seem to be available, and a number of companies billed for advertising report that they have never seen the publication.

The characteristics of the situation mirror that of a case reported in various Canadian publications and the Los Angeles Jewish Journal.

Those papers report that over at least the past five years, a publication calling itself the “American Jewish News” has been billing several companies including a large car manufacturer, a major hotel chain and several pharmaceutical distributors for ads these companies say they never placed.

The bills usually ranged in price from $1,500 to $3,600 and not one company had ever seen or heard of the newspaper, which boasts offices in Toronto, Montreal, Los Angeles and New York.

The papers also reported that invoices for ads were followed by letters threatening legal action and signed under various names including Sara Kline, Bob Cohen, Jerry Gold and Nina, Tali or Freddy Fuks.

The stationery bears a small Jewish star overlaid with a menorah.

A similar letter recently landed on the desk of Ken Morgan, McKessonHBOC’s vice president of retail marketing. The letter, dated June 7, claimed the company owed $995.

Morgan brought the letter to McKessonHBOC attorneys Hubert Allen and Georgette Pan. He informed them that he had in the past received many calls from a woman named Nina Fox soliciting an ad for the paper, but he never approved the transaction.

Pan, who has worked on fraud cases before, said: “My antennae immediately went up.”

She called the number listed on the National Jewish News stationery, but instead she received a recording for the American Jewish News corporate headquarters.

The paper’s publisher, Sara Kline, whom Pan described as a “belligerent” woman with “an accent,” returned Pan’s call.

“When I asked her if they were American Jewish News or National Jewish News she snapped ‘National’ and would offer no explanation,” Pan said. “She claimed we had run the ad for the past 12 years — always at Passover time.”

On June 15, Kline sent a fax to Pan that included two receipts and a photocopy of a “2 column by 3-inch” ad wishing McKessonHBOC’s “Jewish friends, customers and community members” best wishes for Passover.

“The ad didn’t make sense,” said Pan. “We don’t deal directly with our consumers. That’s not our market.”

The ad also contained a spelling error in the company’s address — McKesson was spelled “McKeeson.”

“That shows me no one approved the ad,” Pan said. “In fact, [Morgan] wouldn’t even approve an ad. He works in retail.”

Upon returning messages left by the Jewish Bulletin at the company’s New York “corporate office,” Kline refused to reveal the circulation of the “16-year-old” newspaper, as well as any other details.

She threatened litigation, adding “Any questions you have should be sent in by writing and will be answered” by the company’s legal department.

She also asserted that the paper is called the National Jewish News and refused to clarify why the phone message says “American.”

In reference to the McKesson misspelling in the ad, Kline spouted: “Typos happen.”

McKessonHBOC has not heard from Kline or the National Jewish News since receiving the June 15 fax.

Pan has determined from the two invoices faxed by Kline and McKessonHBOC records that they have “unfortunately” paid the National Jewish News twice in the past, in 1998 and 1999. Both payments appear to have been approved by employees who no longer work for the company.

“We definitely got scammed [before],” she said. “It’s not unusual in a large corporation, with so many departments. I think they know this and prey upon it.”

Robert A. Cohn, editor of the St. Louis Jewish Light and an authority on ethical violations in the Jewish press, said he “received a number of complaints against these papers with similar names.”

He said they usually target either large companies or small mom-and-pop operations. “Both are vulnerable,” he said.

He also said they often use rented mailboxes sporadically located in cities far away from their targeted victims.

An American Jewish News letterhead with a Southern California address has been traced to a box at Mail Boxes Etc. The address listed as the National Jewish News corporate headquarters is also at a commercial mailbox facility, a postal inspector said.

Cohn said the American Jewish Press Association, the umbrella organization for Jewish newspapers, plans to investigate.

In the meantime, Pan has contacted the San Francisco district attorney, the San Francisco Police Department, the New York Department and the FBI. She also alerted the Toronto police that the “long-running scam” has seeped into San Francisco.

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