BonnerSprings.com

Have you ever answered the telephone only to be immediately overwhelmed by a clever sales pitch? I'm sure you have received mail containing a very real-looking "check" made out to you for a small fortune or at least the amount a police officer earns in several years. Unfortunately, there is always a catch, and that is to entice you, the consumer, to choose the advertiser's product or service.

I am in no way against free enterprise. Most companies that choose this manner of solicitation do so in a fair and impartial manner. They flood the mail with offers of their services and leave it up to the consumer to decide. No pressure, you just receive tons of annoying paper and fewer trees to show for it. Some businesses take a less scrupulous approach to solicitation. These mail-order merchants and telephone hucksters use tactics targeted specifically at elderly residents. Their pitch is so convincing that anyone can fall prey, including you and me.

According to Congress, Americans lose an estimated $40 billion each year due to the fraudulent sales of goods and services over the telephone. The "repeated victimization of the elderly," according to federal law enforcement, is the "cornerstone of illegal telemarketing."

The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) found that 56 percent of the names on "mooch lists" fraudulent telemarketers call their list of most likely victims a mooch list were 50 years or older. The FBI, attorney general and other law enforcement officials across the country report numerous cases of older people losing their savings to fraudulent telemarketers. There are approximately 140,000 telemarketing firms in the U.S. Up to 10 percent, or 14,000 of them may be fraudulent.

Unscrupulous telemarketers who rip off consumers are committing a crime. And, as I said before, many target their illegal cams against senior citizens. These callers may say you are eligible to win a valuable prize, ask for a contribution to a phony charity, or promise to get money back that you may have lost in an earlier telemarketing scam. The easiest way to avoid becoming a victim is to just say no.

Kansas telemarketing laws require a telemarketer to terminate the call anytime the consumer gives a negative response. Other requirements you should know are:

If the call is from an automated dialing device and the consumer hangs up, the call must terminate within 25 seconds.

Telemarketers cannot withhold the display of their number from a caller identification system.

A telemarketer shall not transmit written information by fax or computer after the consumer request orally or in writing that such transmissions stop.

If you receive these types of calls and attempts to terminate are not successful, contact the Kansas Attorney General's Office Consumer Protection Division toll free at 1-800-432-2310. Give the name, address, and telephone numbers of the company and the name of the caller if possible. Include the date and time the call was received.

There are addresses that may be used to request removal of your name from some mail and telephone reference lists that currently exist. You should write a letter asking that your name be removed from all lists. It may not stop all contacts, but it will reduce the amount that you receive. Remember, if you continue to do business with telephone solicitors, even legitimate ones, you will continue to receive solicitations. The companies pass on your name as a preferred customer, so beware.

So, remember that age old saying, "If it sound to good to be true, it probably is.

If you have any comments or questions, please call me at 441-6983. I won't remove you from my preferred caller list.