[BCMA] Scam?

[Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.]

Dear Andrew,

When I worked at the Alliance for Arts and Culture in Vancouver (1997 - 
2005), we were also contacted by this publication. As far as we could 
tell, they were legitimate, and they sent us brochures that included 
photos of their publication and a sign-up form. I remember that the cost 
was $400 to be included in this directory. I spoke with them directly, 
and I remember that they were aggressive, we had to tell them several 
times that we could not afford this as we had no marketing budget, and 
it wouldn't meet an audience that we needed to justify the expense.

They eventually stopped bothering us, but we never really found out the 
point of the directory. To whom was it being sold? And why?

I think your instincts were correct. It always felt wrong when I was 
dealing with them.

Laura Offley (past Membership Coordinator at the AAC)
currently Membership Secretary for the Original Costume Museum Society



Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv. wrote:
> I had the most interesting phone call today.  A man called and asked 
> if my museum would like to renew our listing in the "Canadian Arts 
> Registry."  He read out the information on file, and the address he 
> had down for my site was wrong.  At this point, nothing seemed out of 
> the ordinary.  He then said that there was a cost to renew, for 2 
> years, of 400$ and some.  I replied that we were a very low budget 
> site and I would have to talk to my Board about whether it was worth 
> the expense.  I also asked the guy when the deadline to get our info 
> into the Registry was.  He replied "well if you have to talk to your 
> Board, we should just drop this" and hung up on me abruptly. 
>  
> I then googled "Canadian Arts Registry" and nothing came up.  Beware.  
> It sounds like someone is trying to run a scam that preys on museums' 
> need for marketing.  Either that, or this guy was the worst 
> telemarketer in the history of telemarketers.
>  
>  
> Andrew R. Minigan
> Curator
> Heritage Park Museum
> Terrace, BC
> (250) 635-4546
>
>  
>
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