MAGAZINE MYSTERY IS RESOLVED
EXCLUSIVE SPECIAL REPORT
The mystery surrounding subscriber-addressed copies of magazines appearing for sale at Bangkok's Chatuchak Market has been resolved.
To recap I purchased a copy of Canadian current affairs magazine Maclean's several weeks ago. This magazine was unusual in that it included the name and address of the original subscriber. I've since found three more magazines - recent copies of BusinessWeek, The New Yorker and Sports Illustrated - with subscriber data still attached.
Yesterday I had an email reply to my inquiry from a San Francisco-based subscriber of The New Yorker confirming he had left this copy on a recent Thai Airways flight. As others have mentioned Thai Airways' crew and other airport staff apparently collect magazines and sell them on to retailers at the market. This is backed up by my own discovery of magazines being sold with Thai Airways labels still attached.
The subscriber was also rightly concerned how I had managed to contact him. Googling his name and address from the information on the label provided an email contact, however that information could also allow me access to the customer service section of three of the four magazines mentioned above. From there I could, if I so wish, amend delivery addresses, cancel subscriptions, order additional copies, etc.
It's clearly a data security issue and publishers should be doing more to enhance security of their subscriber data. Subscribers need to take care of their private data as well however it should not be possible to buy a magazine off the street and, armed with only the information on the address label, purport to be that person.
13 comments:
'From there I could, if I so wish, amend delivery addresses, cancel subscriptions, order additional copies, etc.'
Surely you would also need his password for that?
Surprisingly no.
Only one of the four magazines requires information that is not contained on the subscriber address label.
Well done Andrew.
Now just imagine how much money they get for the booze TG staff sells.
Doesn't surprise me in the least that Thai Airways' crew and other airport staff collect magazines and sell them on to retailers at the market. Looks like they deduct the proceeds from their customer service standards.
I would like to point out that I have asked Thai Airways for a comment about the issue of their property (magazines) ending up for sale at Chatuchak several times in the past.
I am still waiting for a reply.
Great investigative report. We need more of this from the Thai mainstream media!
Thank you Saraburian, your comment is much appreciated.
I just wish I could have got comment from Thai Airways, but the truth is they probably don't see the need to give comment about something like this to a blog they don't take seriously. They've also got more pressing issues to deal with.
wow i had no idea that's one of the ways they get these magazines! i purchase secondhand women's magazine but I've always wondered how they got it. Sometimes the issues are pretty new, for example I was able to get the Feb issue of Cosmo around January 20th.. And now that I think of it, sometimes there is a name/address on the cover.. but I never thought much of it and figured people sold it to shops that would buy second hand magazines/books. You see that alot in Khaosan with signs saying "We buy everything".
There is a roadside stand set up occasionally outside our airport here in Knoxville, where articles confiscated by the TSA are up for sale. Cigarette lighters, knives, etc...It's not limited to Thailand, or Thai Airways.
NongKelly, thanks for your comment. It surprises me too that current editions are readily available, and not just one or two copies in most cases.
David. Respectfully I would say there's a difference between confiscated items and those which are lifted from planes and sold for personal gain. If you left a magazine onboard a flight I don't think you'd reasonably expect it to end up for sale.
I think so far as subscriber copies (with data attached) are concerned the individual subscriber has to take some of the blame for allowing their personal data to be passed on so easily. But I also believe there is more to this.
With the issue of non subscriber copies, these will have been suppplied to airlines free of charge so the purchase of copies at places like Chatuchak is ultimately damaging publishers income.
If I buy a copy at Chatuchak for 20 baht why do I need to pay 150 baht for exactly the same copy from Asia Books?
The mystery is solved, well done on getting to the bottom of it.
Further comment on this story from a follow-up on the Canadian Magazines website (http://canadianmags.blogspot.com/)
"I always assumed magazines left on the plane were just junked, so I peel off my label and leave it at the waiting area/gate when I leave the plane. Pretty concerning that airlines are selling used copies as new and not even bothering to get rid of the label..." - Matthew.
I am not surprised about this at all.
Even if a magazine does get put in the trash you can expect it will get recycled by somebody at some point.
This is common practice across Asia where recycling is almost an artform.
If your empty bottles and cans can be recycled then why not your old magazines?
It probably is not the airlines or the stewards but the guys who clean the airplane or even the guys who collect the trash from the airport.
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