|
Sweepstakes victim
getting her money back
Originally printed in The Evening
Star 4/10/99
By CINDY BEVINGTON
LAGRANGE - It's a dream come true.
An area woman who admitted she lost more than $50,000 in the
past seven years trying to win mail-order sweepstakes is getting
her money back.
Betty Weimer, who at first wanted to remain anonymous but
changed her mind after Indiana Attorney General Jeff Modisett
asked her to attend a national meeting on sweepstakes fraud,
has cashed checks totaling $18,000 so far.
The money was returned to her by United States Purchasing
Exchange.
It wasn't the dream she'd hoped for: After all, the real dream
she'd pursued by ordering merchandise from this company and others
like them was to win the millions of dollars the companies promise
in their mail offers.
But, after losing her entire savings, cashing in all her retirement
accounts and even overdrawing her checking account to buy things
from these companies in the hopes of winning their sweepstakes,
it seemed like a dream just getting the $18,000 back.
The money came with very little urging from USPE, after the
woman and two of her daughters attended a national meeting of
attorneys general in Indianapolis in February, Weimer's daughters
said.
"We were at the meeting, listening to other people testify
how much they'd lost to these people," said Georgi Sharp
of Wolcottville.
"Before we went there, mom wanted to remain anonymous
because she was afraid to admit she'd spent so much money on
these things. She also was very vague about how much money she
actually spent.
"But after we went to Indy, she really opened up, admitting
all the different places she'd spent her money. I think she realizes
now she's not the only one.
"Yes, the sweepstakes people testified they don't target
elderly people. But what we saw in Indy was only elderly people,
mostly people who are alone and lonely.
"They wait for their mail every day and they believe
in these companies' promises of prizes. They are just like my
mom, they do this hoping to do something for their families,
to leave us something. But they end up going broke."
Weimer testified at the meeting, telling the attorneys general
how she believed USPE was telling her the truth when they sent
letters saying she was their "guaranteed winner."
She became a celebrity, of sorts, while in Indianapolis, with
camera crews and newspaper reporters from all over the nation
asking for interviews.
NBC's "Today Show" even flew her to New York City
immediately following the meeting, to tell her story on national
TV.
The media attention, coupled with a little help from one of
the attorneys general, is what got her mother's money back, Sharp
says.
"If you hadn't done this newspaper story, none of this
would have happened," Sharp said. "At the meeting,
the Iowa attorney general came up to us and gave us his phone
number. He told us to call him when we got back home, so we did."
Ray Johnson, an attorney who works with Iowa Attorney General
Tom Miller, had helped Iowa citizens get their money back from
some sweepstakes companies including USPE.
Sharp called a USPE phone number Johnson provided and the
company was immediately responsive, she said.
"USPE knew who we were right away. They wanted to come
that night and pick up her stuff. I told them she didn't have
everything she'd ordered anymore - that she'd given a lot of
it away. But they said they didn't care, they'd just take what
she had left and give us this money."
A truck pulled up the same week and left Weimer's home loaded
with USPE merchandise that filled Weimer's garage, bedrooms and
attic.
Weimer took the check to the bank.
She was glad to get it, she said. "But I know that's
not all I spent with them," she said. "I was spending
as much as $100 a week on three orders a week to them. I'm glad
to get what they did give me. But I know they owe me more."
In fact, USPE did determined they owed her more and, in the
last few weeks, has sent Weimer four more checks so far - with
a twist.
"These extra refund checks total about $200," said
Weimer's other daughter, Tara Mitchell of Lake James. "But
look what they did! They sent her a letter with the checks saying
it was OK to cash them, but maybe she'd want to use the refunds
to buy something else from another catalog, instead!"
The letters even included a "teaser" - a promise
of a "reward" or extra gift, if she ordered instead
of cashing the refund checks.
Their mother wasn't reeled in with the promise of gifts this
time. "She cashed the checks," the daughters said.
While their mother holds out hope of getting more money back
from USPE, the daughters want to work on other sweepstakes companies
which took their mother's money, too.
"We want to contact every one of them," Sharp said.
"They say only one in five people order from them, but the
money we got back is just a drop in the bucket. These places
probably get that much money coming in every hour - and the majority
probably is from the elderly."
|
