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
|
Sweepstakes victim
goes public
Originally printed in The Evening
Star 2/23/99
By CINDY BEVINGTON
ANGOLA - An area woman who lost $50,000 trying to win sweepstakes
prizes offered by mail-order companies such as United States
Purchasing Exchange will attend a national meeting of attorneys
general in Indianapolis Wednesday to tell her story.
The Evening Star interviewed Betty J. Weimer, of Fort Wayne,
and her three daughters, Georgi Sharp of LaGrange, Tara Mitchell
of Lake James, and Marla Timberlin of Hamilton, in a series of
stories published in early January.
At the time, neither Weimer nor the daughters wanted their
names used. After the series was published, however, Indiana
Attorney General Jeff Modisett was inundated with requests from
other news agencies to interview Weimer, too, said Modisett's
media liaison, Rich Schneider.
After talking with Schneider about the national interest in
the story, the women agreed to go public and allow their names
to be used.
USA Today was among the first to call. The national newspaper
printed the women's stories Monday.
Fort Wayne television station WANE also interviewed the women.
That show will air tonight.
"She's become kind of like a media star," Schneider
said this morning. "Yesterday, NBC's 'Today Show' called,
and they want Mrs. Weimer, too. They tried to contact Georgi,
but she wasn't in.
"I think they said they want her to be on Thursday morning."
Other news agencies have contacted him, too, Schneider said,
and they all want to interview Weimer when she arrives Wednesday.
"I think the purpose of the newspapers and TV networks
for wanting to talk with Mrs. Weimer is to use her as an example
of something that needs to be brought to light for others,"
Schneider said.
"One main goal of our meeting Wednesday is to hear from
the sweepstakes industry, consumers and experts to assist us
in determining what it is we should do next, whether that is
with federal legislation and model laws or asking the industry
to correct itself."
Monday night, Weimer was unaware that "The Today Show"
is seeking her out. She had been contacted by other Indiana newspapers,
however, and she already had plans to give interviews to everybody,
she said.
She was looking forward to meeting the attorney general, and
even had plans to bring suitcases full of the "promise"
letters she had received from USPE and other mail-order companies
such as Publishers Clearing House and American Family Publishers.
"I also want to tell him about another place that keeps
promising me I've won something - the Cancer Coalition,"
Weimer said.
"I also want to talk to the people from USPE," Weimer
added. "I want to tell them they're a bunch of damn liars."
Weimer's daughters, Mitchell and Sharp, plan to attend the
meeting with their mother.
The daughters said they are nervous, but looking forward to
helping not only their mother, but others.
|
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!
|
