Washington

Four scientific societies have rumbled an international scam that is reported to have cost them more than a million dollars.

The operation was run by Eastwood Books, a Los Angeles-based subscription service that renewed subscriptions for university libraries. Manager Jung Shin is alleged to have found a profitable but illicit angle to this mundane service by using fake names and scientific affiliations to purchase individual journal subscriptions. These were then resold to libraries in Asia at institutional rates, which range from two to ten times the individual price.

The four societies — the American Institute of Physics, the American Physical Society, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and the American Chemical Society — announced last week that they had received $250,000 in an out-of-court settlement after threatening to sue Eastwood Books.

Although this figure is less than their estimated losses, the societies are pleased with the outcome. “The main thing was to stop the practice,” says Marc Brodsky, executive director of the American Institute of Physics. Shin declined to comment on the matter, but told Nature that she has now left the subscriptions business and resumed her education.