1. Telemarketing Fraud
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2. Fraud
wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain.

3. Current Scams
By now, most adults have experienced a period of excessive telemarketing calls at one time or another.  While you may hang up or completely ignore them, telemarketing scams are actually more successful than you may think.  Because of this never ending problem, it is very important to keep yourself aware and understand how to identify these scams.  This will help you to elude these financial traps that attempt to pump you for personal information and steal your money.

4. Tips for avoiding scams
Don't give your credit card, checking account or Social Security number to unknown callers.
Don't invest your money with an unknown caller who wants you to make up your mind immediately.
Don't send cash by messenger or overnight mail.
Be aware of prize offers, travel packages or investments for which you need to provide financial information.
Be aware of foreign lotteries. They are not allowed by U.S. law, which prohibits the cross-border sale or purchase of lottery tickets by phone or mail.
Check out unsolicited offers with the Better Business Bureau, local consumer protection agency, or your state's Attorney General's Office before you agree to send money.
Legitimate consumer telemarketers will follow the rules prescribed by the federal government and the National Do Not Call Registry.

5. Relevant statistics
• Within the population over 50, fraud victims are more likely than non-victims to be male, white, and college graduates. They were more likely to work and to have an annual household income over $30,000. • While it had been suspected that older fraud victims were more likely to live alone than non-victims, both groups have nearly the same housing patterns and social integration. • Nearly all (90%) older fraud victims had heard of cases of consumer fraud, but 68% said it is difficult to identify fraud in the moment. An additional 11% said that they don’t know if it would be easy or hard to recognize fraud. • Only 5% of victims said they had not received any telemarketing calls in the month before the survey. • 96% of victims were able to describe a method for avoiding telephone fraud (i.e. hanging up on a telemarketer) but this report questions their inclination to follow through with those actions to prevent fraud when it happens. • The study identified five victim profiles. The most common were people who were “open to anything” and often bought into low-cost sweepstakes and victims who feel they can’t be fooled and tend to resist help from others.

6. Questions
“What is the name and contact information of the company you are working for?”
“Are you licensed with Consumer Protection BC?”
“Will you mail me a package of information I can review on my own time?”
“Is there a phone number I can call you back at?”

7. Links