SUSAN GRANT, Vice President Public Policy, National Consumers League
Director, National Fraud Information Center
July 15, 1997

Every day, fraudulent telemarketers commit armed robbery against consumers, using telephones instead of guns. These criminals can be found everywhere in the United States and Canada. No locale is immune from being used as a base for fraud, and no consumer is immune from being targeted.

But here in Georgia, law enforcement officials at all levels of government are fighting telemarketing fraud aggressively, using civil and criminal statutes, cooperating in investigations and prosecutions, educating consumers on how to spot a crooked line on the telephone. The National Consumers League, through our National Fraud Information Center, is helping Georgia law enforcement and consumers in this fight.

Consumers can call our toll-free number, (800) 876-7060, or use our web site, www.fraud.org, to ask for advice concerning telephone solicitations and report possible fraud. Their fraud reports are transmitted by the NFIC to law enforcement authorities, including the FBI, the FTC, and the Georgia Governor's Office of Consumer Affairs. This alerts those agencies about scams operating within their jurisdictions and consumers who have been victimized. That information has been used to help build many of the telemarketing cases brought here in Georgia.

The National Consumers League, the oldest nonprofit consumer organization in the United States, is also fighting telemarketing fraud on other fronts. With a grant from American Express, we launched a study of telemarketing fraud targeting older consumers. Our aim was to explode the old myths about why consumers are defrauded and formulate new, more effective antifraud messages.

Using research from the American Association of Retired Persons, information from experts who work with older people, and focus groups of older consumers, we found that it is often the good qualities of older consumers -- their politeness, their curiosity, their tendency to give others the benefit of the doubt, that are exploited by fraudulent telemarketers. So we're emphasizing the criminal nature of telemarketing fraud and the fact that people have to be very careful who they let into their homes through the phone.

Our elder fraud report, which we have provided to consumer agencies, state offices of aging, and others who work with older people, is available to anyone who wants to learn more about how to deal with the serious problem of fraudulent telemarketing targeting seniors. We have also produced a brochure and video called "They Can't Hang Up," to be used as educational tools in the fight against telemarketing fraud. We congratulate the folks in Georgia for their vigilance against the scourge of fraudulent telemarketing and we're glad to be part of the solution.