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
|
Attorney General wants
to better the odds in sweepstakes
Last in a series
Originally printed in The Evening
Star 1/7/99
By CINDY BEVINGTON
ANGOLA - They are not alone.
Two northeast Indiana people who spent thousands of dollars
thinking their purchases through mail-order companies would help
them win the companies' sweepstakes prizes are not the only ones
in this situation, according to Indiana Attorney General Jeff
Modisett.
The area man and woman, who want to remain anonymous, spent
their money with several different mail order companies, including
United States Purchasing Exchange.
The man currently is getting his money refunded by USPE as
a Council on Aging volunteer sends back the items he purchased.
The woman has indicated that, now that she knows USPE will refund
her money, she too will return her purchases.
But what about others in the same situation, who have bought
magazines, books or other merchandise through not only USPE,
but also Publishers Clearing House, American Family Publishers,
Readers Digest and other, similar mail-order companies?
"Stories like this, like these two persons', is the same
thing I've heard from other states, as well as in Indiana,"
Modisett said in a telephone interview last week.
"I've heard a few stories almost identical to (the ones
The Evening Star told this week) - family members who are heartbroken,
victims who are throwing away their retirement money pursuing
sweepstakes when the odds are one in 100 million."
As hints of problems with sweepstakes offers and mail-order
companies trickled into his office, Modisett last year contacted
Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth.
"Florida has been a leader on this topic," Modisett
said. "And, after talking with him and reviewing complaints
we had in Indiana, we decided to sue American Family Publishers
because, of all the complaints we'd received, theirs was the
one that most clearly crossed the line."
"The line," Modisett explained, has to do with Indiana
laws governing mail-order companies and sweepstakes offers.
Indiana law says that when a company is selling something
other than magazines, every single time the sweepstakes prize
is mentioned in the company's mailing, the odds of winning that
prize must be published right beside the prize.
In other words, every time USPE mentions in its mailings that
$3 million is the prize in its latest sweepstakes, then the odds
of winning that $3 million must immediately follow. That rule
applies no matter how many times the $3 million is mentioned.
It also applies to magazine and book mail-order companies
such as American Family Publishers and Publishers Clearing House,
when they offer for sale merchandise other than books and magazines.
American Family Publishers broke this rule, Modisett contended.
After Modisett filed his lawsuit against AFP, the publicity
generated more than 1,000 complaints about mail-order companies'
sweepstakes, he said.
"Before that, we had never received more than 950 total
complaints against any one industry in any one year, and we beat
that record in less than a month with this," Modisett said.
Alarmed, Modisett raised the question of mail-order sweepstakes
at a national meeting of attorneys general. The group decided
to form a sub-committee on "Sweepstakes Fraud and Prize
Promotion" as part of their consumer protection committee.
Modisett became the subcommittee's chairman. He and Butterworth
then made a presentation to a Congressional hearing in Washington,
D.C., but with the presidential election going on at the same
time, the issue didn't get much attention, Modisett said.
So, the attorneys general decided to have their own national
hearing. That hearing will take place Feb. 24 in Indianapolis,
and Modisett hopes that people who believe they are victims of
mail-order sweepstakes offers will come forward and tell their
stories to the gathering.
"We decided we ought to expose this problem and have
the victims testify. We want to hear from everybody - everybody,"
he said. Or, Modisett added, victims' family members may want
to testify, because many victims either don't want to admit their
odds of winning are very low, or are too embarrassed to go public
with an admission of how much money they have spent thinking
they are winners.
"The idea is to expose the abuses," Modisett said.
"After that I hope to come up with some model state legislation
or federal legislation. We're prepared to continue the fight
through litigation, too, but sometimes quicker relief comes through
legislation - litigation takes so long."
As far as USPE's mail-order offers, the group also will be
looking at the fine-line difference in the way a company such
as USPE presents its mailings, added Rich Schneider, media liaison
for the attorney general.
USPE differentiates between "sweepstakes" and "incentive
programs." In its sweepstakes, the company reminds customers
often that no purchase is necessary. However, the incentive programs
require purchases, with the company explaining that the "prizes"
people expect are "awards" and not gifts.
Because people either do not take the time to read mailings
carefully, or simply because they do not understand there is
a difference between "sweepstakes" and "incentives,"
and "prizes" and "awards," the attorneys
general want to do something about clarifying those differences,
Schneider said.
"Any ploy used to mislead people into thinking they have
won is deceptive," he said. If a "reasonable"
person might misunderstand the wording, then the attorneys general
will be looking at the mailing, he said.
"I think the problem is that people get something in
the mail and then they can't tell the difference," Schneider
said. "They also need to know the odds are small of winning.
The attorneys general simply want the information contained in
these offers to be presented in such a way that people know exactly
what they are doing."
|
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!
|
