Telemarketing fraud - Don't be a victim!
Does your name appear on a "sucker list?" These lists contain information about people who have
provided valuable personal information to previous telemarketing solicitations. The lists are bought, sold and traded by scam artists who want your information and your money!
Seniors are especially targeted by unscrupulous sales marketers for products and services.
They want your valuable information, especially your credit card, birth date,
social security number, and address. Older women living alone are especially
targeted by scam artists. They play upon an older person's trust and politeness.
Often, callers inform the listener that he/she has won
a foreign lottery or that Social Security needs bank account information for their files.
Social Security employees NEVER call individuals for information.
You can protect yourself:
1) Do NOT give your credit card, checking account or Social Security number
to anyone who calls you. Call 1-800-772-1213 if you need direct Social Security information.
2) Don't pay for something to receive a "free" gift or sweepstakes.
3) Do not pay anyone to recover money for you for a "fee."
4) Call the Better Business Bureau, local consumer protection agency, or the State Attorney General's Office, before you agree to send money. Another source of information is the
OIG (Office of Inspector General). Their Hotline number is 1-800-269-0271. A Public
Fraud Reporting form is available online at OIG's Web site: www.socialsecurity.lgov/oig.
PUT YOUR NAME ON THE DO NOT CALL REGISTRY, too! It is free.
www.donotcall.gov
or 1-888-382-1222 from the phone you wish you register.
Do it for your cell phone, too!
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Comments
You are a good writer. The LA Times just fired their editor -- suggest you put your name in (provided you can work from home or the tennis court). Also Rupert Murdoch is looking for a sharp publisher to merge his NY Post with the recently acquired Wall Street Journal. Would need to come up with creative pictures of murdered transvestite stockbroker interns -- and write headlines such as "Wall Street secretary to Fortune 500 company raped by frustrated three legged Muslim futures speculator and abducted by Hillary Clinton on spaceship landing in West Boynton synagogue parking lot on sabbath after journeying to Mars and Long Island."
Posted by: Irwin Shapiro | January 30, 2008 10:13 PM