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Sweepstakes 'scams' unveiled through
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Another area person also believed
he was a winner
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the odds in sweepstakes
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Sweepstakes victim getting her
money back
Sweepstakes legislation may carry
local victim's name
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NEWS-SUN, EVENING STAR
& HERALD-
REPUBLICAN
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Another area
person also believed he was a 'winner'
Originally printed in The Evening
Star 1/5/99
By CINDY BEVINGTON
*The names in this story have been changed to protect the
identity of the victim, a senior citizen.
ANGOLA - Mary*, a volunteer with the Steuben County Council
on Aging, hardly can hold back her anger when she talks about
the money Frank* spent trying to win a prize through United States
Purchasing Exchange.
"They lie to you," Mary says, lumping all the mail
order houses' sweepstakes offerings together. "And they
sell your name to everybody in the world, so you get the same
types of things from other places. And people just keep throwing
away their money."
Mary became involved with Frank's mail order problems after
Frank's bank became concerned and called the Council on Aging,
asking if someone could help him with his finances.
"He was writing between 30-50 checks a month to these
'get-rich-quick' schemes," Mary says. The checks went to
Reader's Digest, Publisher's Clearing House, USPE, and dozens
of others.
"I got to him in time, though. I posted all the checks
and found out he'd already spent $5,367 on USPE merchandise.
I told him he wasn't ever going to win.
"But he said, 'I can't stop now because they promised
me I was going to win. I countered with, 'I never knew anybody
who actually did win.' But he insisted that USPE 'guaranteed'
he was the winner."
Frank had a 60-foot-long room filled with USPE merchandise,
Mary says. "You couldn't walk through it. But, still, he
didn't want to stop ordering because he just knew he is their
$3 million winner.
"With Reader's Digest, he was winning cars. With Publisher's
Clearing House, it was $31 million. I went through all this stuff
and came up with a 6-inch-deep stack of printed material from
all these people, and then I started writing letters to cancel
his name from their mailing lists.
"But I couldn't get to them fast enough - They just kept
sending the letters."
One place out of Florida, a lottery scam, Mary says, even
talked Frank out of his credit card number. With the help of
a lawyer who volunteered his services, she was able to cancel
the $3,000 this company, "Deluxe International Inc.,"
had charged to the card.
She contacted USPE and the company told her it has a very
"liberal refund policy." So, with the help of a local
business that is paying for the cost of mailing back the merchandise,
Mary has been able to return it, over the course of a year.
So far Frank has received a little over $3,000 back from USPE.
"He saved every invoice," Mary says. "He realized
after a while that he was getting taken - he's partially blind
and he couldn't see the fine print (using the words 'may' or
'possibly' in describing him as a winner) so he wasn't reading
it.
"After he did see that he wasn't going to win and after
he got his first check back from USPE, he even started helping
me find invoices and the items to match. Now, there's very little
left in that 60-foot room.
"Yet, even after he went to a nursing home, he still
received something from one of those places. It was for a trip
for two to Hawaii.
"I know there are others like Frank here in northeast
Indiana. I've heard about them. One lady even went to the post
office and told them she was writing a bad check for stamps -
but for them not to worry because she was winning $1 million!
"The COA called me to help another person, too, but I
can only do one person at a time. I get so angry with all this!
I've gotten one man out of trouble, but there's 1,000 more out
there - maybe more."
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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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