Stop Dishonest Telemarketers

Source: AARP.org | March 27, 2006

Older Americans are the targets for a new kind of criminal. These crooks hold you up in your own home but not with a gun. They use the telephone.

Even if you register with the National Do Not Call Registry, some telemarketers will keep calling you at home because the possible profits are so great. The callers who are out to get your money, no matter what, don't care about obeying the law.

The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that telemarketing crooks cheat one out of six consumers every year. And this crime costs Americans more than $40 billion annually. That's enough to pay for the nursing home care of more than a million older Americans for an entire year.

Who's at Risk

While dishonest telemarketers call people of all ages, backgrounds and incomes, they often make up to 80 percent of their calls to older consumers. Federal law enforcement officers say that older people are the "cornerstone of illegal telemarketing."

In addition, AARP found that 56 percent of the names on "mooch lists" - what these telemarketers call their lists of most likely victims - were 50 or older. Too often, the telemarketers scam the same people more than once.

Crooked telemarketers often prey upon older people who are well educated, have above-average incomes, and are socially active in their communities. Their sales pitches are sophisticated and include phony prizes, illegal sweepstakes, or sham investments and charities.

In what they call their "recovery rooms" dishonest telemarketers sometimes scam victims all over again by promising to help people recover the money they have lost - for a fee, of course.

The FBI, state attorneys general, and other law enforcement officials across the country report many cases of older people losing their life savings to crooked telemarketers.

What You Can Do

Crooked telemarketers who rip off consumers commit a crime. Decide now - before a crook calls you - to report suspicious telemarketing calls and unwanted repeated mail advertisements to your state attorney general and your local postal inspector.

You may also use the Federal Trade Commission's consumer complaint form to report suspicious calls, mail or advertising appeals.

If you have not already done so, sign up on the National Do Not Call Registry. Telemarketers who continue to call after you have registered are subject to penalties. Use this same site to file complaints about telemarketers who call you even though your number is on the registry.

And don't forget the power you have to simply hang up the phone when a stranger calls trying to sell you something you don't want.

More Steps to Take

• Ask telemarketers you have doubts about for their company's name and address and a phone number where you can call back-if you want to and at a time you choose.
• Call the local consumer protection service in your area and in the state or city where the company is located. Ask if any complaints have been made against the firm.
• Ask about the company's refund policies.
• Ask the caller to send written material to study before you make a purchase.
• Call the local consumer protection service in your area and in the state or city where the company is located. Ask if any complaints have been made against the firm.
• Talk to family and friends or call your lawyer, accountant or banker and get their advice before you make any large purchase or investment on the phone with a stranger.
• Tell the caller to remove your telephone number from telemarketing lists. Every telemarketing firms is supposed to maintain a call suppression list. If the calls continue, contact the Federal Trade Commission's Do Not Call Registry complaint line. It's illegal to call you again after you have asked to be removed from a list.

• Order your free copy of the book “Weapons of Fraud.” It includes a CD with recordings of actual criminal telemarketers making their pitches.