<P>I'm occasionally accused of focusing too much on the minor sins of the technology giants instead of exposing more of the outright scams perpetrated by lesser-known companies. And there might be something to that criticism. But one reason I lean that way is that at least the Microsofts and HPs have enough of a sense of shame that they will try to fix some of the problems we air. That doesn't tend to be true o I’m occasionally accused of focusing too much on the minor sins of the technology giants instead of exposing more of the outright scams perpetrated by lesser-known companies. And there might be something to that criticism. But one reason I lean that way is that at least the Microsofts and HPs have enough of a sense of shame that they will try to fix some of the problems we air. That doesn’t tend to be true of the shadier outfits, such as the Eli Journals/New Hill Services publishing operation.Several months ago I wrote about one reader’s experience with invoices for an Eli Journals publication that he never ordered. Each letter demanding $97 for ‘Inside Adobe Indesign’ was more threatening than the previous invoice, but the reader could not get Eli/New Hill to stop sending him the invoices or the unwanted publication. “I spoke at length with a customer service representative who assured me that the matter would be corrected and I would have no more trouble from them,” the reader wrote me a few weeks after my story appeared. “But then I got yet another invoice from them, saying menacingly that they ‘certainly do not want to take any further action to collect these funds.'”I have now heard from a number of others who have also received multiple invoices for various publications from this group. They are all certain they never subscribed to the publication and most suspect the first reader was correct in surmising that Eli got his address from his personal website. “I’ve been having an experience similar to your reader who first received invoices for a publication he didn’t order from Eli Journals/New Hill Services, and then started receiving the publication itself,” one reader wrote. “In my case it’s ‘Inside Photoshop.’ How did they know that I use Photoshop? Probably from my website, although in fact I’m an experienced Photoshop user who feels no need to spend $97 for an overpriced subscription to their newsletter. I’ve e-mailed and snail-mailed them several times, reiterating that I didn’t order their publication and that they should stop bothering me, but the invoices just keep arriving. I’d like to just ignore them, but is there some way that they can mess up my credit rating with this wretched behavior?”While it’s highly unlikely that Eli/New Hill could or would cause trouble for anybody’s credit for these letters that the company itself claims are merely “an offer to subscribe,” you can’t blame those recipients who get nervous about the incessant threats. “I get faxed at least three times a week from them for a dental coding book, price $650.00,” another reader wrote. ” I used to get at least three mailings a weeks as well. It seems they got ahold of the American Dental Association’s membership book. When I contacted them and asked for my name to be removed and said I hoped they would be closed down, the worker replied that she did not care if they were ripping people off or not. Nice, huh?”That reader isn’t the only dentist to be bothered in this way, as can be seen by this American Dental Association article. Indeed, it would appear that, along with technology publications, medical publications are another major focus for Eli Journals, aka New Hill Services, aka The Coding Institute, aka National Subscription Bureau, aka National Litigation Bureau, aka Orthopedic Coding Alert, aka Eli Research, etc. And yet another reader notes that this multi-named “publishing” organization appears to have have already run afoul of at least one state attorney general. But there might be other good ways to cause old Eli and friends a bit of consternation. A number of readers have noted that under U.S. postal regulations, you are allowed to keep with no obligation anything sent unsolicited to you in the mail. And the laws against mail fraud provide an avenue that one reader believes was effective in getting Eli/New Hill to stop sending its phony invoices to him. “I got a couple of bills from those lowlifes,” he wrote. “I don’t know if I even got the publication they were talking about, but I know I didn’t ask for it. So I went to the USPS’s online complaint form for mail fraud [Ed’s note: Please do not use the postal service’s mail fraud form to complain about any company that has not victimized you personally] and filed a complaint against them. The billing stopped soon thereafter.”I guess it just goes to show that even the shameless can be shamed … if it’s in front of the right audience. Do you know a company with practices that need a bit of exposure? Start embarrassing them by posting your comments on my website or writing me at Foster@gripe2ed.com.Read and post comments about this story here. Technology Industry