Sweepstakes Home
Sweepstakes can be fun - but shouldn't
cost you money
Sweepstakes offers sweep savings
out the door
Sweepstakes 'scams' unveiled through
series
Daughters vent their frustrations
at sweepstakes
Another area person also believed
he was a winner
USPE responds to local customers'
complaints
Attorney General wants to better
the odds in sweepstakes
Sweepstakes victim goes public
Sweepstakes industry hits unlucky
streak
Psychology lures people into buying
Sweepstakes victim getting her
money back
Sweepstakes legislation may carry
local victim's name
Buying club complaints piling up
Here's the key: Think, call BBB
before you sign
NEWS-SUN, EVENING STAR
& HERALD-
REPUBLICAN
|
By CINDY BEVINGTON
NORTHEAST INDIANA - "Help us, please!"
My first inkling that something was amiss with mail-order
sweepstakes popped up about two years ago, when a Steuben County
Council on Aging representative asked me if I would write a story
about a man who'd lost several thousand dollars trying to win
sweepstakes such as those offered by Publisher's Clearing House,
Readers Digest, American Family Publishers and United States
Purchasing Exchange.
Telling his story, my COA person said, would help other senior
citizens realize the folly of believing they have to purchase
something to win something. It also would expose the sweepstakes
companies that induce people to buy their merchandise through
sweepstakes offers, my informant said.
The story proposal intrigued me. But, like many others who
aren't aware of the magnitude of this issue, I dismissed it at
first. I dismissed it again a few months later, when the daughters
of a woman who'd also lost thousands of dollars to mail-order
companies begged me to do something to help them stop her from
spending her money in this way.
Thinking these two senior citizens were isolated cases - possibly
people with dementia or other age-related illness - I continued
to dismiss writing a story about them, even after the COA and
the woman's daughters repeatedly asked me to help them by investigating
the problem.
The story idea became reality in December, 1998, when Indiana
Attorney General Jeffrey Modisett announced that he was heading
a national committee of attorneys general investigating sweepstakes
companies.
TO READ MORE OF
THIS STORY CLICK
HERE.
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STAR REPORTER'S
SWEEPSTAKES SERIES WINS NATIONAL AWARD
EXCLUSIVE TO THIS WEB SITE:
A letter to The Evening Star editor
from Indiana's Attorney General
Want to read another paper's stories
about sweepstake scams?
Why do the elderly seem more susceptible
to believing sweepstakes promises? Two experts give their opinions
Why do the elderly seem more susceptible
to believing sweepstakes promises? A gerontologist shares his
studies.
Iowa has seen it before
National issue, local example,
big news
Persons to contact if you believe you may be the victim
of a sweepstakes scam:
National Association of Attorneys
General
750 First Street, NE, Suite 1100
Washington, DC 20002
PH: (202) 326-6000
FAX: (202) 408-7014
Office of Attorney
General
Steve Carter
402 W. Washington St.
Fifth Floor
Indianapolis, IN 46204
PH: (317) 232-6201
FAX: (317) 232-7979
National Fraud Information Center 1-800-876-7060
National
Consumer's League
1-202-835-3323
Federal Trade Commission 1-877-382-4357
(toll free)
E-mail
Cindy Bevington
or Evening Star
editor Dave Kurtz.
WATCH FOR ADDITIONAL STORIES EXCLUSIVE TO THIS WEB SITE!
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