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
|
National issue, local
example, big news
By CLAYTON G. CARL
HSPA Correspondent
This article was originally published in
The Indiana Publisher, July 29, 1999
Cindy Bevington is a staff reporter for Auburn's daily The Evening
Star with a readership of 8,600. When she decided to write a
short series on sweepstakes scams late last year, she never imagined
the widespread attention her articles would get. She did not
expect to still be writing on the subject almost eight months
later or that the newspaper would provide unlimited space on
the Internet for her to do so.
"I just thought that I was going to do a couple three stories
and localize it," Bevington said. "I had no idea it
was going to go like this and I had no idea the the company was
going to create a website."
It started a couple of years ago when a local Council on Aging
caseworker approached Bevington and asked her to do a story on
a elderly client who spent $5,000 on mail-order merchandise trying
to win the sweepstakes from United States Purchasing Exchange.
Bevington did not seriously consider the story, thinking this
was an isolated incident.
Shortly thereafter, relatives told Bevington her husband's
aunt, Betty Weimer, was in a similar situation and they wanted
her to do a story on Weimer. Bevington had won and HPSA award
for a story she did on alcoholism a few years before and they
were impressed with her investigative writing. They pleaded with
her to expose the sweepstakes scams in an article.
Bevington sympathized with Weimer, but did not pursue the
story at that time. Since she is related to Weimer by marriage,
she initially questioned the ethics of doing a story on her.
"I don't want to use family or friends to make a story or
create a story," Bevington said. "I wanted assurance
that there was a story there that did not include them. And I
think (Indiana Attorney General) Jeff Modisett was the final
decision."
Bevington learned late in December 1998 the attorneys general
of the United States were investigating sweepstakes scams and
that Modisett is the chair of the subcommittee. When Bevington
called Modisett's office to request an interview, his staff told
her he was out of the office.
Bevington thought he would follow up with her when he returned
and she could pursue the story early in January. But when Modisett
heard about Bevington's plan for a story, he did not want to
waste any time.
"He was so interested in me doing this story, he called
me from his home on New Year's Eve and gave me this interview
and then when he explained to me that he had others in the state
of Indiana that had lost all of this money, I thought, 'Well,
maybe there is something here!' Bevington said. "I called
the COA back."
With this phone call, Bevington hit a roadblock. Although
they were pleased she planned to do a story and they were willing
to assist her, the COA caseworker could not release the clients'
name due to confidentiality laws.
"I could have done this story with the COA, but I did
not have the victim and I wanted a victim who would speak to
me," Bevington said. "Because of fear, because they
don't want to be exposed, because the caseworkers are bound not
to expose them, then I had to find a victim on my own and here
was this victim (Weimer)."
When Bevington interviewed Weimer and her daughters, she learned
Weimer had spent approximately $50,000 on various sweepstakes.
Weimer spent all of her savings and IRAs to puchase merchandise
and magazines, hoping to increase her chances of winning big
from the sweepstakes companies. The embarrassment of going broke
by entering sweepstakes prompted Weimer to request anonymity
in Bevington's articles.
Bevington wrote the articles using pseudonyms for Weimer and
her daughters. Modisett's office persuaded Weimer to go public
and testify at a national meeting of attorneys general in Indianapolis.
Weimers decision to go public brought more attention to her
situation than she could have imagined. She was inundated with
interview requests from various media organizations by phone
and when she got to the national meeting. NBC flew Weimer and
her daughter Georgie Sharp to New York for an interview on the
"Today" show the day after the meeting. The national
media attention made Weimer a celebrity of sorts.
"This one lady told me I was the crusader of the senior
citizens," Weimer said.
Weimer's newfound celebrity status and testimony at the AG
meeting helped get part of the money she spend back.
"Without Cindy doing this, nothing would have ever happened
and she would never have gotten the money back that she did get
back which is a godsend," Sharpe said.
Modisette agrees Bevington writing about sweepstakes scams
helped Weimer and will undoubtedly help others.
"It is fair to say that reporters like her raised public
awareness of the issue and that led to two things," Modisett
said.
"One, is people who felt they had been deceived were
more likely to file complaints which assisted us in our litigation
effort. But, No. 2, as importantly, there were all those people
who were thinking about entering the sweepstakes or buying the
products to compete in the sweepstakes and the read the articles
and decided against it. So, those people you do not hear about
because they didn't get defrauded, but that is over half of the
effort here."
Bevington is excited the attorneys general are pursuing legislation
and litigation against sweepstakes companies.
"The most rewarding part was when I was sitting at the
national hearing as a reporter and listening to the attorneys
general all but reaffirm everything that my victims and their
caretakers had said and their families," Bevington said.
The attorneys general used copies of some of her articles
in the media packets distributed at the hearing.
I felt good taking a backseat and letting other reporters
have the story. It made it, it kind of validated what I did because
it is not my story, this is a national story that really belongs
to the victims and just keeping Betty in Angola, in northeast
Indiana, really isn't fair to all the other people whose families
can't speak up or won't speak up and so it gave me a feeling
of relief. Okay, all the other reporters have her now and that
might do something good for all the other victims," she
said.
Bevington's editor Tom Alberts at the Steuben county edition
of The Evening Star is proud of her series and the effect
it can have.
"We are just very pleased and hapy with the way she was
able to get this information from these folks to share with our
readers and hopefully prevent other situations from occurring.
So I think this series of stories may do some good for folks
in the future and that's part of what we're here for, kind of
our civic responsibility to alert folks to things that are going
on and try to avoid getting yourself into trouble," he said.
Bevington ponders how quickly a local story can grow to national
significance.
"It shows just how small the world really is," she
said. "There are so many different facets of life that even
though you are just this tiny dot at one side of the planet,
it turns out there are lots of tiny dots all over the planet
that have similar situations and being able to tell the stories
of all the tiny dots and tie them together I think brings people
closer, whether they are in the neighboring county or across
the country."
Bevington thinks an important part of news writing is telling
the whole story. Working for a small daily allows time for follow-up
that she might not have elsewhere.
"My editors do encourage you, if you are going to start
something, finish it. Follow up, let the readers know what's
going on," she said.
Bevington has a lot of follow-up stories to her sweepstakes
scams series planned.
"I'm not our to get the sweepstakes companies. They are
legal companies," she said.
But through her intensive research and discussions with Modisett's
office, she believes there is much left to write about.
|
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!
|
