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What you need to know
about mail fraud!
When the mails are used to intentionally
misrepresent a
product or service it constitutes Mail Fraud. The U.S.
Postal Inspection Service is charged with investigating
violations of the law, usually in response to consumer
complaints.
The best way to protect yourself from mail
fraud is to
recognize that it is a fraud and not become involved.
This is not easy to do because of the attractive wording
in the deceptive ads. Anything that sounds to good to
believe is suspect. Medical formula's and gadgets that
make "insane" promises are probably "insane"
and you
should stay away from them. Especially be cautious
regarding some of the thousands of different weight loss
products and overnight cures.
Never purchase land through a mailorder
ad unless you or
your personal representative has seen the land, it is as
represented, and the value is there. If the salesperson
has shown you the property report you can cancel your
purchase agreement within seven days. If no report was
shown to you before signing an agreement you have the
right to cancel out within two years.
There are a number of insurance frauds
floating through
the mails. Bequests to sign blank insurance forms, last
chance bargain offers, payments in advance and cash
payment requirements could indicate con artists at work.
Of course, most everyone has received chain
letters
sometime in their lifetime and if you are in the mailorder
business you should get several every day as a minimum.
Chain letters are illegal and do not work anyway. Need we
say more? More later!
We've all seen the ads offering job placement
and job
opportunities. Most of them are legitimate but some are
100% non-existent or complete misrepresentations. Don't
spend your money for the required fee until you have
checked with your local consumer affairs office or Better
Business Bureau.
Then there are those who promise huge profits
without risk
in commodities, stocks, oil, gold, silver or coins,
through the mail or over the telephone.
There are hundreds of very fine investment
opportunities
offered but you can't risk your hard earned cash, or
possibly lose your life savings, to mail order or
telephone swindlers. Several of the larger, well
recognized firms have gone bankrupt through fraud and
management manipulations carrying client's investments
right down the drain with them. Always use caution and
investigate the company thoroughly before you put up one
dime.
Another favorite of the crooks is home
improvements.
Quite often you never see them after you sign a contract
and pay them a deposit to do the work. If they send
brochures through the mail and the work they perform is
not as represented it could constitute mail fraud. Get
estimates from local service companies to determine if the
price of the mailorder offering is reasonable and in line.
Check the references of the organization.
The laws, regulations and paperwork involved
in setting up
franchise operations are horrendous. Various large
distributorships are equally difficult to establish but
generally do not have to conform to near as many controls
and regulations. On the other hand, some mail order
distributorships and wholesale outlet require very little
effort and the home company has little control over their
activities. If profits promised are unrealistic or if the
product or service is secondary to selling the franchise
or distributorship, proceed with caution!
U.S. Postal Service....Subject: Chain Letters:
If you ask the Postmaster to check out whether a chain
letter is legal or illegal, you will get a letter similar
to the following:
TO: xxxxxxx
Dear Postal Customer:
We are in receipt of a chain letter furnished
through the
xxxxxx Post Office for your consideration.
As information, chain letters that request
money, bonds,
books, or other items of value, and promise a substantial
return to the remitter which is dependent upon the
activities of those who follow in the chain, are regarded
as non-mailable under the postal lottery and fraud laws,
Title 18, U.S. Code, Sections 1302 and 1341.
Chain letters which call for nothing more
than recipes,
picture post cards, and the like, are ordinarily
considered to be mailable inasmuch as the items sent do
not constitute a thing of value within the meaning of the
applicable law.
Chain letters involving "good luck"
chain prayers which
contain a threat of bad luck to those breaking the chain,
do not violate the lottery and fraud laws, however, postal
cards bearing the same message are non-mailable under
Title 18, U.S. Code, Section 1718, which prohibits
threatening matter on the outside of the mail.
Inasmuch as the particular chain letter
you received
appears to violate the postal lottery and fraud statutes,
we are forwarding same to our Division Headquarters for
attention.
The person or persons who are listed on
the chain letter
will then get a letter advising them the letter is illegal
and that they should immediately disassociate themselves
from any further activity with the scheme.
There are hundreds of illegal chain letters,
and also a
few legal ones, going through the U.S. Mail every day.
There are thousands of Multi-level marketing programs
floating all over the country, many of which are just as
illegal as chain letters. It's sometimes difficult to
understand why any of these should be classified as
illegal because a person usually doesn't spend over a
couple of bucks and they seem to get a lot of enjoyment
for their investment. Nor does anyone make a dime on them
anyway, and that usually includes the person who started
the program.
Gift Catalogs, Circulars,etc., offering Drop-Ship
Services:
Some writers try to tell you that companies which offer
drop-shipping programs are illegal. That the only ones
making money are the dealers furnishing the catalogs. If
that is the case, just about everyone in the mail order
business is illegal! Many prime source printers, dealers,
and distributors offer full color catalogs or circulars
with your name imprinted and a well planned program for a
reasonable price. You can make good money, just like in
any other business if you put reasonable time and effort
into the project. You can also make extra money with this
kind of program by riding it along with your other regular
mailings, thus filling your envelopes to maximum for the
postal weight limit.
The people who think this is a fraudulent
way for the
mailorder distributor to operate apparently have little or
no knowledge of the mailorder business. The ask "if the
deal is so good, why doesn't the drop-shipper mail the
catalogs themselves and not have to pay any commission".
Well, even a fool should know that to multiply your
profits through legal and fair association with others is
the way all successful businesses in America operate!
This in addition to many other factors such as using
independent contractors, rather than setting up employees,
payroll tax reports, etc., and of course it's about the
only way to get your offers presented to 150 million
prospects.
They say you cannot make it on the usual
50% commission.
What about the drop-shipper. For example the author and
prime distributor of a book. Perhaps he has put in
several months of research and hard work writing the book.
Then comes the enormous cost of layout, printing,
collating, binding, preparation of promotional data, and
building a presentable program. He's doing others a great
favor by letting them keep one-half of the money taken in
from his labors. He may even break-even while hoping to
make a well deserved profit . And yet these know-it-all
characters try to tell us the prime source has no
advertising costs, that their operations are very
profitable and that they have no risk.
I can agree with them when they talk about
"envelope
stuffing", but don't let them confuse a legal catalog and
drop-ship program with a worthless, misrepresented
envelope stuffing program that has no real substance or
money-making value.
Envelope Stuffing Schemes:
Now we're talking about "work at home schemes"; not
legitimate work at home opportunities, distributing, or
drop-ship programs. In fact most letter stuffing
"schemes" are not necessarily illegal unless they take
your money through fraud or misrepresentation. They
usually send literature on some product or service they
offer and quite often will sell you mailing lists to send
the literature to. You are charged a few dollars for the
packet together with simple instructions. If the product
or service is as represented and a reasonable commission
is forthcoming for your efforts there is nothing illegal
about it. If you are promised things that are not
"delivered" or the start-up packet is just a come-on to
entice you to get deeper and deeper into a costly program
before you can expect the originally promised results then
you have probably found the illegal operation.
Often "envelope stuffing" ad
offers make it appear that
you will receive all the envelopes and stamps, along with
the mailing materials and name list without cost, in
effect working for them as a mailing service. Then after
you have paid the $5 or $10 dollars for their packet, you
receive a small pamphlet explaining how to set up a local
mailing service for the various retailers, etc., in your
community. This sort of activity, of course, is
misrepresentation. The promoter actually has nothing of
value for you at all. He is just selling a cheap
instruction pamphlet that cost only a few cents each when
gets them printed in quantity.
There are hundreds of other kinds of envelope
stuffing
programs. Many of them are fraudulent. Many more are
good honest programs. One must look before they leap, or
at least test before they jump in over their head.
Low Price Offers:
A ridiculously low price is often the bait used by those
who do not intend to furnish the goods ordered through the
mail. If you get an offer to purchase an item for $10.00
that usually sales in the local hardware store for $75.00,
there's got to be something wrong. Either the merchandise
is stolen, inferior or it won't be delivered.
Insurance Fraud:
Drivers who have a bad accident, or their driving record
is not so good, may not be able to purchase auto liability
insurance from the regular insurance companies.
Fraudulent insurance companies compile name lists of
likely prospects, make mail solicitations, etc., and will
write insurance policies for anyone who will hand over a
premium. The reserve funds they are required to set aside
for payment of claims are manipulated into the promoters'
pockets, while they pay only minor claims and hold up
larger claims as long as possible until their insurance
company goes into bankruptcy. This leaves many unable to
collect legitimate claims. Thousands more finally
discover that they have been paying high rate premiums
with no protection from liability. Best bet, purchase
your insurance locally or check out the mail order company
with your state insurance department.
Retirement homes:
What a terrible pity. The little 80 year old lady who had
just lost her husband a year ago, and 160 other retired
residents of "Sunrise Manor", just lost their investment
and perhaps their final home. Sunrise Manor was a
beautiful set up; separate little apartments condominium
style with wide carpeted hallways leading to the dining
room, game rooms, health care center, etc. The grounds
were immaculate, with green grass, trees and beautiful
flowers.
They had been solicited through the mail
with glowing
information about the Manor. It was all true. A really
good deal for the retired person. The initial fee for
those who first signed up for a small room was $18,000
cash. Larger quarters ranged from $30,000 to $60,000.
This initial fee was to be placed in a trust account, the
interest to be used for capital outlay requirements and
most of the principal was to go to the heirs upon the
death of the tenants. Monthly rent was nominal and
included meals and limited medical care in the health care
center, which was built in part of the Manor. It was so
attractive from a personal and financial aspect that there
was always a waiting list of qualified persons who wanted
to make their home in the Manor.
What happened? Apparently only the management
knows as of
this writing, but an enormous amount of funds are missing
and overnight the manor was placed into bankruptcy. The
court appointed trustee is trying to put the pieces
together while the prosecuting attorney is investigating
the activities of the owner-management team. It appears
the tenants' $18,000 to $60,000 investment is long gone.
Apparently it was not retained in a proper trust account,
a great deal of it was used for other than company
business, and being set up within the capital structure of
the organization whatever may remain, or be recovered, is
subject to an enormous amount of creditors claims.
When you receive unordered merchandise
through the mail:
Most people feel obligated to pay for small inexpensive
items received through the mail, even though they did not
order it. If this happens to you, and you have not yet
opened the package merely write "Return to Sender" and
let
the post office take it from there. If you have taken it
out of the package and it is something you have no use for
it is a good idea to keep it for a reasonable period of
time and see if the party sending it makes claim to it or
bills you for it. If they claim it, you may wish to be
courteous and send it back C.O.D. If they bill you, you
really have no obligation to pay for it. You may want to
consider it as an unconditional gift.
Pressure your neighbor:
You will get yours free from the commissions you make from
selling the product to your neighbors. So you give the
canned sales pitch to your friend and rather than have you
think he's a cornball, he purchases the product. He again
repeats the process with his relatives, etc., and you get
a cut from what they sell. And so it goes, down the line
for 3 to 5 multi-level commission earing stages. When the
product is delivered, it's not what it was represented to
be and you find that you could have bought it from the
super-drug store at half the price. You are mad, your
neighbors want to kill you and the money-making
multi-level dream comes to a screeching halt. All because
of the "wonderful new product" advertised in the morning
mail.
Consolidate your debts:
You've gotten yourself in over your head and now there is
no way you can meet all your monthly payments for your
home, auto, appliances, credit card charges, etc. The as
states; "Make it easy on yourself. Just pay us one
payment each month, small enough so that you can handle
it, and we will arrange with your creditors to pay them
off." That sounds good. Get the creditors off your back.
But later you realize the monthly payments you are making
to the consolidator go on practically forever. After
adding commissions, fees and interest you don't gain on
the principal amount you are trying to liquidate. Read
the large and small print.
Home improvement contract:
Look over that contract with a magnifying glass. Check
with local contractors and get bids from them to see if
the mailorder offer is in line. dishonest promoters of
this scam look for people who are hard pressed for money
but who have a small equity in their home. For exorbitant
monthly payments they offer to make improvements or
additions to the home and loan the owner a few hundred
dollars for their "increased" equity. The value of the
improvements are generally only a small percent of the
total amount charged.
Charity and contributions:
They just keep coming. The "Junk Mail" asking you to
donate to worthy causes. To feed small children who are
starving in Africa. To help the senator or congressman to
fight for a cause. To stop the experimental use of
animals. To help find a cure for human ills. To give
money to the communists so they can "fight against
freedom", and to the freedom fighters so they can fight
communism.
Which ones are legitimate and merit your
full support.
Which ones are operated by swindlers? Who knows? The
government gets into the act by cutting down the amount of
legitimate contributions you can deduct from your income
tax, and some TV ministries are going to hell unless they
get $10,000,000 by the end of the month, or unless their
top officers can draw over a million dollars a year and
live in 2 million dollar mansions. They only way you can
know where your money is really going is to stick with the
organizations you are 100% familiar with. Check with the
Chamber of Commerce and The Better Business Bureau, or if
you are planning on donating substantial amounts analyze
the organization's financial statements. Also review how
it will affect your tax status.
Work at home propositions:
There are a number of good work at home programs, but
there seems to be more of them that are losers.
Everything from selling books through the mail or setting
up a local secretarial service to sewing baby clothes.
There is always an advance fee of some kind required for
work at home projects. Some of them are good producers if
a person stays with it long enough. Others work at it for
months, hoping to break the 75› per hour barrier. You
better think twice before paying for the chance to work at
home.
Medical Fraud:
Medical quacks preying on the ill, offering cures or
medications through the mail are gambling with their
freedom. Medical fraud is one of the major priorities on
the list of the Postal service investigator and the
fraudulent quacks are generally put out of business before
they can do any real damage. However, there are many
programs; such as reducing diets, certain vitamin pills,
hair restorers, and hundreds of "cure all" drugs making
the rounds in the mail across the country every day. Most
of the products offered are a bad substitute for the real
thing you could get through your doctor or from the local
drug store.
Even if the promoter is not convicted or
fined, the Postal
Service can deny him the right to receive remittances
through the mail of it is determined that false
representations have been made.
Also, unless you watch your medical and
hospital bills
with a microscope you can expect to get invoiced for
hundreds to thousands of dollars from various labs around
the country where they say your blood was sent for tests;
tests you didn't authorize or didn't even know existed.
In fact, it usually doesn't do any good to use your
"microscope". Unless the hospital gets $4,000 out of you
for a four day stay, they apparently will go bankrupt.
Are you Heir to a Fortune?
If you receive fancy looking legal documents offering to
provide information which could help establish a claim to
an estate left by long lost, or deceased relative, worth
several million dollars, forget it. Save your $10.00.
You will receive the information but it is just worthless
paper telling you how to go about locating missing
relatives or heirs.
Fake contests:
Wow again! You get them in the mail every day. "You have
won". "No purchase required". All you have to do
is fill
out the contest form, order the gadget if you wish, and
send the order form along with your money! Etc., Etc. As
long as you enjoy junk mail, want to waste a few stamps
and get a thrill out of wanting to see if you have won
anything, there is generally no real damage done even
though most of the "come-on gimmicks" are deceptive and
often 100% misrepresentations.
Correspondence courses:
The promise of a good job or a money making business of
your own is usually the lure of fake correspondence
schools. They "guarantee" that a job will be available
when you complete the course. They will accept anyone who
will sign a contract making them liable for several
hundred dollars, usually paying on a monthly basis as they
proceed through the course. There are always a few
correspondence schools, promoted and handled through the
mail, that have completely worthless programs. You could
probably learn better, and much more economically by
checking in at your local library and searching out the
hundreds of How-to-do it books on just about every
subject.
Other Areas Subject to Mail Order Fraud:
Advance Fees:
Inducing persons to pay fees in advance for products or
services to be delivered at a future date then never
making delivery or refunding the fees.
Check Kiting:
Most people are not aware that it is illegal to use
several bank accounts in different banks across the
country to build up large apparent balances in one or more
of the accounts through "outstanding checks", transfers,
etc., for the purpose of using money without interest or
siphoning funds from the inflated bank accounts. In this
age of computers, check kiting is rapidly going down the
tube.
Sending unordered parcels C.O.D.:
It is fraud to send parcels C.O.D., containing items not
ordered by the recipient if the value is considerably
below the C.O.D. price.
Credit cards:
Use of any credit card without intent to pay is fraud,
whether they are obtained by fraudulent application,
stolen from the owners, or used by the owner.
False solicitations:
Soliciting anyone to enter into a contract for anything,
when misrepresentation is involved, the quality of the
work performed as compared to that offered is inferior, or
failure to perform, can constitute fraud.
Good Luck:
Promising good fortune and blessings through donations to
"religious" promoters is a scam that is usually
perpetrated through the mails on superstitious or
uneducated people.
Other Rip-offs to watch for:
Schemes to collect non-existent delinquent debts. Victims
receive notice of alleged past due accounts or inquiries
through official looking documents requesting pertinent
information. The information is then used against the
victim in different ways in order to "get his money".
Endless referral plans whereby it is represented
that the
item will cost a person nothing because by referring other
people to the seller they can earn enough commissions to
pay the full cost of the purchase.
Accepting another's capital for investment
in a business
opportunity then converting the capital to their own use.
Submitting false or fictitious claims to
insurance
companies, such as staging fake auto accidents, or
fraudulent claims for sickness, accident or
hospitalization, which results in getting benefits far in
excess of actual cost.
Offering job information for a fee whereby
there is
misrepresentations about the jobs available, the amount of
salary paid, experience required, etc.
Loans offered under any number of false
and fraudulent
representations.
Swindles involving clubs that carry on
romantic
correspondence with members of the opposite sex and
through misrepresentations and promises to obtain money or
property.
When you are dealing in products that are
aimed at the
elderly market, regardless of how good they are; whether a
book on retirement, medical products, or just about
anything else, you are suspect by the Postal Service.
Sale of memberships in a buyers discount
club whereby it
is represented that members will save large sums of money
by being a member and whereby savings are non-existent or
remote.
How to create work records, diplomas, degrees!
Although this idea has been in circulation
for many years,
it is fraudulent in most instances. The publisher
strongly advises you to check with your attorney before
trying this plan.
The basic idea consists of visiting a college
library and
checking the yearbooks for someone with a surname the same
as yours. Then you write to the university and request a
copy of "YOUR" degree which you state has been lost,
stolen, or whatever, being sure to give the graduation
date. With this you can make a resume' fit for a king.
For work records, you simply create or
use names of your
former employers...Those firms which have since gone out
of business. For the last or current employer, you again
create a company which could be the number and address of
a friend who will back up your employment checks with
"glowing" testimonials on your fine abilities.
If a person does pursue this type of activity,
I'm
reasonably certain if the judge doesn't catch up with them
within a short time the computers will.
How to vanish and start over again under
a new identity!
Many people change their identity each
year for a variety
of reasons, some times legal, sometimes for illegal
reasons. The publisher believes that in most cases the
method described here is illegal and does not in any way
advise the reader to pursue this practice. However, this
is the way it is done:
The idea is to obtain a "birth certificate"
of a deceased
individual who would have been your approximate age, hair
color, eye color, etc., had they lived. Preferably, this
should be the name of a child, not an infant, at least one
year of age at the time of death and no later than 5 years
old if possible.
Search through the death records at you
County or State
Offices. These records will tell you the name of the
parents and other information which is needed to apply for
(your lost) birth certificate. Once you obtain the birth
certificate, you can obtain any other "official" documents
almost at will.
When you have filed an application for
a social security
number and established a few credit cards and a drivers
license, you are a "new" person.
Remember though, there is no easy way to
change your
fingerprints nor your basic personality traits. From the
time you change identity you will have to watch every move
you make or your identity will be discovered by someone,
some place down the line.
It is usually better to face your problems,
whatever they
may be, and solve them by being "yourself".
Now a few words of advice:
Regardless of all the "Rip-off Artists" and the fraudulent
activity sometimes associated with the mailorder method of
doing business, please remember that there are "rotten
apples" in just about every barrel. Mail order is no
exception. However with proper knowledge, testing, and
good judgment, most phases of the mailorder business can
be very productive & profitable!
