Honors Society Scam

This is an email I received from the North American Scholars Consortium a few days ago (NASC). Its a scam. Why, you ask? How would I be invited to an honors society based on academic success at a university I have yet to attend? They ask for your information in the application and after the application is "approved" they ask for your credit card information to pay the one time membership fee of $68. I searched around the internet and found other people had investigated the suspicious email and website associated with the message. Misspelled words, no address, etc.

This guy has an example of a personal story with several other people posting similar comments.

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Dear (my name),
As a result of your dedication to scholarly success in [university I'm attending in the fall], North America Scholar Consortium extends to you an invitation to apply for membership in the NASC Honor Society. Membership application is by invitation only; therefore, membership is a special honor afforded to a small group of outstanding students. Membership applications are available at http://www.naschonor.org/member/inv/*******/.

Please use your assigned invitation code when you apply. Invitation Code: *******

To learn more about the opportunities that accompany NASC Honor Society membership, please visit http://www.naschonor.org/ for more information. I encourage you to seize this valuable and rewarding opportunity and look forward to seeing your name among the next list of new NASC Honor Society members!

Sincerely, Louis Birch
President 2009-2010
NASC Honor Society
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I also got a card in the mail from http://www.magnacumlaude.org/. This one also leads to the same site: http://www.collegehonors.org/. I looked into some of the names of the officers that are mentioned, which check out at least in the sense that these people exist and are who they say they are. There is also mention of wanting to offer change in the current honor society system. The statements below are from the website:

"The National Scholars Honor Society is an independent academic honors organization. Respectfully declining all affiliations with institutions, associations or other organizations eliminates bureaucracy, and allows us to be directed by our mission."

"An innovative group of University of Illinois medical and health professions students, unhappy with the corporate-machine style national honor societies available to most college students, dedicated themselves to reforming the standards and creating this honor society. Philosophy and vision came together with a common sense approach, and ignited what would become The National Scholars Honor Society in 1997, growing from 100 members in 1998, to over 98,000 members today."
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I must admit though, its probably a scam that has caught the "A students" off guard. Thankfully, I'm not one of them.