Costco Connection

CONSUMERconnection
Loopholes in
Also:
■ Check scam
■ TV to change
■ Copy warning
Do Not Call
By David Horowitz

TELEMARKETERS ARE still making calls to homes and businesses, despite restrictions established by the national Do Not Call list. According to the law, tele-marketing calls are prohibited except when the business has a previously established relationship with the recipient of the call, even a minor one. But government experts say salespeople are calling without such previous contacts, betting that most residents won’t take action and that they’ll complete a sale.

The federal government is the only entity that can bring charges against a telemarketer that violates the terms of the Do Not Call list. But the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, which led to creation of the popular list, provides for consumers to take a “private right of action.”

This means a person can sue telemarketers, and some have. For example, one determined private citizen recently won $6,000 in judgments against telemarketers in three cases, and more are pending.

For more information on the Do Not Call list, including directions on adding your phone number to it, go to www.donotcall.gov.

The Federal Communications Commission says it understands the stress that this may place on TV owners, so every household, regardless of whether it needs a converter box, can request two coupons worth about $40 to buy two converter boxes.

However, no one yet knows how much these electronic boxes will ultimately cost. So there’s no estimate of what TV owners will have to pay.

A helpful Web site on this issue is at www.dtv.gov/consumer corner.html.

Ask David

Horowitz

BOTH OF my parents
have passed away, and
I found information on
life insurance policies
they had. I don’t know
if they are still good. I
have tried to contact
the companies, but
have had no luck locat-
ing their offices. How
can I track them down?
Heidi
Ontario, California

Too good to be true

A check scam, based on an old con game, is now in circulation.

A check arrives in the mail, with an announcement that “You’ve won hundreds of thousands of dollars in an international lottery!” Or sometimes it’s a “sweepstakes prize” or “secret shopper reward,” in which people believe they are being hired to act as shoppers to evaluate the effectiveness of a business.

The kicker is that, to keep the winnings, the recipient needs to wire 5 percent to an agent for “administrative costs.” People anxious for the winnings immediately wire the “fee check” without waiting to learn the prize check is a phony.

And they often start spending the winnings, only to find out later the whole thing is a scam. Rarely are the crooks caught.

Copier caution

What’s the newest risk for identity theft? Digital photocopiers!

Most copiers manufactured in the past five years have hard drives,

like a computer’s, for scanning and storing data before printing the copies. If there’s no password or encryption, sensitive data—such as on the millions of tax returns copied this time of year—can fall into the wrong hands.

Ask your tax preparers or the copy shop you use if their copy machines have data security installed. If not, you may want to find a different copy machine. C

The wave of the future

Are you still watching your favorite shows on an analog television? If so, you should know that at midnight on February 17, 2009, that picture might disappear. That’s the federal government’s deadline for broadcasters to convert their signals from oldstyle analog to state-of-the-art digital. You might be able to keep receiving transmissions, but you’ll need a digital converter box to do it, which will be available from retail stores during the transition.

AMY CAN TRELL

David Horowitz is a leading consumer advocate. His “Fight Back!” commentaries are heard daily on the Jones Radio Network. For stations and times, check the radio page at www.fightback.com.

CONTACT the insurance commissions in the states where the policies were issued to find out if the companies are still operating under those names, went out of business or sold the policies to another company.

Then, you’ll
need to find if there
was a time limit on
the benefits. Some
policies are held
for a limited num-
ber of years.
If the poli-
cies were not
claimed by the
beneficiary or
next of kin and have

cash value, the money might be held with the secretary of state’s office in the state your parents lived in.

You might also get some helpful information from the Insurance Information Institute’s consumer help line. You can reach them at 1-800- 331-9146 or online at www.iii.org.

Do you have a question for David?

Just log on to www.fightback.com and “Ask David.” He will personally respond to your problem if you follow the instructions printed on his Web site. (Costco members receive a rebate off the normal fee.) Questions and answers of the greatest interest to Costco members will be used in this column with the permission of the contributor and will be posted on www.fightback.com.