Consumer advocates and organizations such as AARP constantly try to tell seniors to just "hang up" on telemarketers that appear to be con artists. Also, seniors are repeatedly told that "if it appears to be too good of an offer to be true, it is probably a scam."

As a result of a major research survey conducted for AARP, a new approach is now recommended: Telemarketing fraud is a crime and fraudulent telemarketers are criminals. Recently, Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger (he is now the president of the National Association of Attorneys General) and AARP held a press conference in Washington to announce this new direction in the educational effort to protect seniors from telemarketing fraud.

These unscrupulous telemarketers are committing a crime when they rip off consumers. Three out of four criminal telemarketers specifically target senior citizens. A recent federal rule about telemarketing spells out the requirement that the telemarketer must tell you how to get the "valuable prize you have won" at no cost and without the purchase of a product. Secondly, no telemarketer can take a payment from you in advance for services such as, the service of recovering the money "you should have received" if another telemarketing transaction hadn't ripped you off. Lastly, the telemarketer must obtain written or tape recorded permission from you before any money can be withdrawn directly from your bank account.

Telemarketers target seniors, rich or poor, highly educated or barely educated, at home and isolated or very socially active, it doesn't matter. The National Fraud Information Center (NFIC) can be called at 1-800-876-7060 to report suspicious calls to seniors and to obtain advice as to what to do if they are called again.

We all want you to be crimefighters, not just cautious seniors! So learn what you can so you can distinguish the criminal from the honest telemarketer and don't be afraid to report the questionable ones! The Consumers' Council would like to hear from you too. We have provided some relevant pamphlets to the Senior Center for you to pick up or to request by mail. The Consumers' Council telephone number is 349-6150.

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