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Seniors are favorite target of telemarketing scams

 
Published July 30, 1996|Updated Sept. 16, 2005

(ran HT edition)

Deep down, most of us realize that you don't get something for nothing. And yet, when a stranger calls to tell us we have just won a fabulous prize, we are often tempted to believe it is our lucky day.

Well, lucky days like that are costing Americans about $40-billion a year in telemarketing scams, and many of the victims are elderly.

Marie O'Rourke, a Justice Department attorney specializing in telemarketing fraud, said con artists are increasingly "focusing on seniors and it is a trend that alarms us."

Sometimes the con artists say they just want to "verify" your credit card number before processing your prize. Or they suggest that you buy their product _ often at grossly inflated prices _ to increase your chances of winning.

Or you may receive a postcard directing your to call a 900 number _ at enormous per minute charges _ to collect a prize that doesn't exist or at least is worth a lot less than the caller would lead you to believe.

O'Rourke is prosecuting some of the 400 unscrupulous telemarketers arrested last year with the help of elderly volunteers who agreed to tape calls they received. The undercover investigation was dubbed "Operation Senior Sentinel."

Scott Pattison, consumer counsel for the Virginia attorney general's office, offers these tips to seniors:

If it seems too good to be true, it probably is ("and you can take out the probably," Pattison adds).

Never give a credit card number over the phone unless you initiated the call. "If people would heed that one tip alone, it would virtually eliminate telemarketing fraud," Pattison said.