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Another area person also believed
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USPE responds to local customers'
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Sweepstakes victim goes public
Sweepstakes industry hits unlucky
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Psychology lures people into buying
Sweepstakes victim getting her
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Sweepstakes legislation may carry
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Buying club complaints piling up
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NEWS-SUN, EVENING STAR
& HERALD-
REPUBLICAN
|
Sweepstakes legislation
may carry local victim's name
Originally printed in The Evening
Star 7/3/99
By CINDY BEVINGTON
ANGOLA - "IF YOU DON'T ORDER, JANET MILLER OF MARYLAND
WILL GET YOUR NEW PONTIAC BONNEVILLE!"
This message from an actual recent mailing by United States
Purchasing Exchange, written in bright red, capital letters,
is similar to hundreds of letters that Betty Weimer believed
when she spent more than $50,000 trying to win USPE's and other
mail order companies' sweepstakes.
Convinced that she'd not only won at least one car and several
appliances, but also the company's $3 million sweepstakes, Weimer
went broke buying merchandise from USPE and other mail-order
companies.
In January, Weimer, 75, told her story anonymously to The
Evening Star, hoping that by doing so she would help others escape
the losses she suffered.
In February, she went public when Indiana Attorney General
Jeff Modisett invited her to tell her story at a national meeting
of attorneys general.
At the meeting, Weimer became a media star, of sorts, with
reporters and news agencies clamoring for interviews, including,
NBC's "Today Show" staff, who whisked her off to New
York City to appear on the show.
Shortly after, she began receiving her money back from USPE.
And now, she may have state legislation named after her, in
honor of the good her story has done.
Modisett, who heads a subcommittee on sweepstakes and prize
promotions for the National Association of Attorneys General,
broke the news to The Evening Star Friday.
"Betty is an example of courage," Modisett said.
"What she did, her actions by coming forward, was not just
for her benefit - although she has benefited - but for all the
other people who are victims of fraud and deception.
"What was important, with her coming forward, was to
show people that there are real victims out there, people from
our own community, and that these are not people who are extremely
gullible or in some other way unusual.
"It just showed that the victims are like the person
next door. What Betty did was a great service to everyone, and
as we pursue legislation regulating mail-order companies, I think
we may very well call it the 'Betty Weimer Act.'
"She's done so much to help, and she deserves it."
Weimer was surprised by the announcement, but pleased. "Well,
I think that's nice," she said Friday afternoon. "I
would never have thought anything like that would happen. Several
people did come up to me at the national meeting, though, and
they shook my hand.
"They told me I was a crusader for coming forward and
that it was important that I did it."
The U.S. Senate currently has a bill working its way through
the necessary steps to becoming law, but Modisett fears the bill
may not be as tough as he and his committee would like.
"We want to make sure high-volume purchasers like Betty
get reminders from these sweepstakes companies, telling them
they don't have to buy anything to enter," Modisett said.
"But one problem is the letters the companies send out
need to be reviewed by the attorneys general, so we can make
sure the warning is not lost in the clutter of all the other
information they put on a letter."
Indeed, letters such as that above, which come with small
print in another section of the mailing or on the back side of
the letter in the middle of a volume of writing, will be illegal
if the attorneys get their way.
At the national meeting in February, the attorneys said personalized
mailings with a clutter of conflicting messages confuse consumers,
tricking them into buying merchandise they don't need and can't
afford.
In response, mail-order companies that attended the meeting
said they thought their mailings already were clear, succinct
and "fair, fun and free." But, they added, they would
try to do better through self-regulation.
The attorneys, skeptical that self-regulation would work,
followed up with a 129-page report of their investigation of
sweepstakes companies and their recommendations of how to stop
people like Weimer from losing their money on sweepstakes.
Publishers Clearing House, American Family Publishers and
Time Inc. are three companies that several individual states
have targeted for lawsuits.
USPE is now "at the top of the list," as well, Modisett
said. A report on that investigation will be forthcoming in 4-6
weeks.
The attorneys attacked the sweepstakes industry on four different
fronts. First, they sent the report to Congress to see if it
can be included in pending bills such as the one in the Senate.
Second, they will send a copy to each state attorney general,
to help the states beef up their own sweepstakes' laws.
Third, all the attorneys sent all the sweepstakes companies
copies of the report, and asked the companies to rectify the
situation voluntarily.
"And fourth," Modisett said, "we are very active
in ongoing investigation and litigation. We perhaps may be going
to trial with Publishers Clearing House, plus we have others
we are seriously investigating, with USPE.
"And fifth, I think this motivated the Senate to hold
their public hearings, and it sparked them to consider this legislation."
|
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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