Postal Service, FTC Move to Protect Elderly From Fraud

When Susanne Conley-Higgins heard her mother say, “I’m going to win the Canadian lottery,” it was one of her first indications that the 86-year-old Maine woman was being scammed.

Conley-Higgins, a postal clerk in Portland, Maine, soon found out that her mother received as many as eight to 10 letters seeking money each day and had accumulated $14,000 in credit card debt--due, in part, to demands for as little as $11 at a time from fraudulent sweepstakes appeals.

Stacks of letters in her mother’s house had return addresses of Las Vegas, Kansas City, Mo., Australia and Canada.

One rambling letter from a Swiss scammer asked for money and included the ominous line: “I still carry my ... 9mm automatic--with silencer of course.”

Conley-Higgins canceled her mother’s credit card, and she now keeps a much closer eye on her mother’s mail.

She is also using her experience to help other senior citizens, attending a news conference held Monday by the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Postal Service and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to highlight the dangers to senior citizens posed by fraudulent or deceptive mailings and telephone calls.

“Fraud complaints are on the rise, and more and more people age 60 and over are becoming victims,” Chief Postal Inspector Lee Heath said.

The Postal Inspection Service responded to 66,000 mail fraud complaints in 2001, he said, and is on track to respond to 83,000 this year--a projected increase of 26%.

The National Consumers League says that Americans are bilked of more than $40 billion annually by more than 14,000 illegal telemarketing operations. The average victim lost $1,174 last year, according to the Alliance Against Fraud in Telemarketing and Electronic Commerce, a division of the Washington-based consumer advocacy group.

Spike in Shutdowns

The postal service shut down 40 illegal telemarketing operations and 80 deceptive mailing operations from Oct. 1, 2000, to Sept. 30, 2001--about a 40% increase over the previous fiscal year. More than $1.2 billion was returned to victims during the 2001 fiscal year.

“Fraud may be the only crime in which the intended victim has a genuine opportunity to choose not to be a victim,” Heath said. “Awareness and education are keys to potential victims knowing how to say ‘no.’ ”

Senior citizens face a dizzying array of potential phone and mail scams. Mail designed to look as if it came from government agencies, solicitations disguised as invoices, foreign lotteries, phony inheritance schemes, home repair and improvement fraud and investment fraud are only some of the scams the postal service has seen.

Louis Johnson Jr. had his own story to tell. The 71-year-old Army veteran has nine years on the Orange, N.J., police force and 13 years as a welfare investigator on his resume, but he was taken just the same.

Johnson said he debated whether to send $199 for a prize promised in a 1995 phone call from Toronto: a motorboat, a car, $2,500 or a trip for two to Las Vegas.

“My wife said no, I said maybe,” Johnson recalled. He decided to send in the money but never received a prize, even after repeated phone calls to the company.

“If I can fall for a scam, anybody can fall for a scam,” he said.

RCMP Investigator Sylvain L’Heureux said that many scammers are based in Canada and target U.S. residents, often in areas with high populations of seniors. Phonebusters, a Canadian fraud complaint line, receives the most complaints from California residents, followed by residents of Texas and Pennsylvania, he said. European residents are increasingly being targeted also.

Alerting Public to Scams

To raise awareness about the scammers, the postal service is sending about 3 million postcards to areas with a high percentage of older residents and placing more than 38,000 posters in post offices.

About 300,000 “stamps by mail” orders, often used by senior citizens, will include educational materials, and half-page ads will be placed in newspapers across the country.

The postal service and the FTC are also releasing public service announcements featuring actress Betty White, as well as educational videos. Settlements won against scammers are funding the campaign.

The FTC and the postal service caution consumers against giving out bank account or credit card numbers over the phone. Heath said consumers should never give in to pressure over the phone, get all information in writing, check out the caller’s record with the Better Business Bureau and never send money in response to a foreign lottery ad or solicitation. Participation in foreign lotteries is illegal in the United States.