"Everyone a Winner"

"I guess I was just sick and tired of buying lottery scratch-off tickets and looking under bottle caps hoping I'd get some sort of prize," said Charlie, a 78-year-old, retired lab technician. "So when I saw ‘everyone a winner' printed right on the envelope, I figured my chances were pretty good – even to win a consolation prize."

Charlie carefully filled out the sweepstakes entry form he received in the mail, licked the stamp and sent it back the very next day.

"The next thing I knew, I started to receive so much junk mail that it all wouldn't fit into my mailbox." And, Charlie's telephone started to ring off the hook, too.

Charlie fell into a common sweepstakes scam, one that collects registration information (including names, addresses and telephone numbers) received from all entries, develops a comprehensive database and sells the list to telemarketing and promotional contest companies.

"I talked to a guy I play chess with down at the senior center and he told me the same thing happened to him when he signed up for a chance to win a free three-day cruise. At least I knew then this wasn't just happening to me."

After 35 years with the same phone number, Charlie decided to have it changed to stop telemarketers from contacting him day and night. And, although the junk mail still invades Charlie's mailbox, Charlie says he now tears it all into pieces and throws it away.

"Oh, and I never won any consolation prize either," he adds.

This narrative is a composite. Names and other identifying information have been changed to protect confidentiality. Any resemblance to an individual consumer's name or circumstance is coincidental.

Taking the Worry Out of Winter

Mom lives alone in the house my brother Joe and I grew up in. We've asked, but she refuses to move. The house is in a pretty safe and friendly neighborhood in Philadelphia, and just two blocks down the street from our old elementary school.

Of course Joe and I help our mom maintain the property as best as we can. He mows the lawn in the summer, my husband rakes leaves in the fall and I handle the springtime planting and weeding. But when it snows unexpectedly during the winter, especially in the middle of the work week, my brother and I can't get over there to help her dig out. We felt better after arranging for a teenage neighbor to help her out. All she had to do was call, but mom just hates to bother anyone.

Then she told me how two men came to the house the other day and gave her a photocopied flyer. They told her about their new snow removal service, "Speedy Shovels," where all she needed to do was pay them $500.00 and these two guys would take care of removing snow and ice from her walkways for the season. They told her she wouldn't have to worry about slipping on the ice anymore.

Mom was really excited about all of this and said they were "heaven-sent." These guys told her if she paid them up-front, right then and there, they would gladly knock $50.00 off the seasonal fee. So she jumped right on it and pulled out her checkbook. She said she was happy not to have to bother her neighbor anymore.

I asked if she knew their names. She said no.

I asked if there was a phone number on the flyer. "Well, of course there is," she told me.

I hung up with my mother and dialed the number she gave me myself. When the person I called picked up I heard, "Anthony's Pizza. How may I help you?"

Ever hear of a pizza parlor that shovels snow?

This narrative is a composite. Names and other identifying information have been changed to protect confidentiality. Any resemblance to an individual consumer's name or circumstance is coincidental.