Agents Use Deceptive Tactics To Evade No-Call Lists and Defraud Elders

The front page of today's Wall Street journal (FRIDAY OCTOBER 26, 2007)

has a very informative article on still another widely used method to deceive and defraud older Americans out of their money.

Here is a brief excerpt of the extensive article. I encourage you to follow this link to read it in it's entirety:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119335472901272206.html?mod=todays_us_nonsub_page_one

Older Americans around the country are getting duped by a seemingly innocuous tactic that can expose them to hard-sell pitches from the insurance industry.

The technique is centered on a marketing tool called the lead card. Sent through the mail, the lead card invites the recipient to mail off an enclosed reply for free information about, say, estate planning.

• The Issue: Older Americans who send back reply cards for free information about estate planning and other topics are being exposed to hard pitches from the insurance industry.

• The Background: The creation of the National Do Not Call Registry in 2003 gave force to a marketing technique: the lead card. By sending off replies requesting information, recipients waive their do-not-call rights.

• The Bottom Line: Many older people say they are then being pressured into buying annuities or living trusts. State regulations nationwide are taking legal action against lead-card companies.

But the cards fail to warn that by sending off replies, recipients are giving up their right to avoid telephone solicitations from the sender -- even if their phone numbers are on the Do Not Call list.

"It's a huge loophole," says Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum, a San Diego nonprofit researcher of privacy issues including commercial use of personal information.

The lead cards often falsely imply an affiliation with the federal government or with advocacy groups such as AARP, for instance. Many of the cards also fail to mention that replies will be turned over to insurance salespeople.

The Do Not Call law allows companies to bypass the registry and call people on the list if they have "provided express agreement in writing" to receive calls. But Eileen Harrington, deputy director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, says the commission's view is that "you cannot use ruses" to get consumers to provide that agreement. Such mailers could be considered deceptive and violate the law, she says. Although the FTC has not yet gone after lead-card companies, she says the agency has some "nonpublic matters pending."

Attorneys general in Illinois, Pennsylvania and Texas have taken legal actions against a total of seven lead generators, charging them with falsely suggesting endorsements by the government or AARP. Regulators in about 20 states have opened fraud investigations into lead generators, according to a court filing by the Texas attorney general's office in one of the cases.