Company Agrees to Stop Ploys to Get Seniors’ Personal Information

AUSTIN, September 23, 3008 - Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has resolved the state’s enforcement action against a Lewisville company charged with targeting senior citizens. According to the state’s investigation, America’s Recommended Mailers Inc. (ARM) used unlawful tactics to obtain senior citizens’ personal information, which the defendants sold as marketing data to insurance companies and agents.

Under today’s agreed final judgment, ARM owner Tina Hennessy is prohibited from sending direct mail to seniors that is misleading or untrue. ARM must clearly disclose when mailers are sent on behalf of a particular insurance agent or company. The required disclosures will ensure that senior citizens are aware of the mailings’ true purpose.

In early 2006, the Attorney General took legal action against four “lead card” generation schemes, including ARM. One of the defendants, American Senior Alliance Inc. and its owner George Katosic, ultimately settled with the state, while defendant Prospect Pros and its president Dave Thompson are set for trial. Another case, Lead Concepts Inc. and owner Christopher Weir, remains pending.

The defendants, competing independently, set up aggressive direct mail schemes that were intended to alarm senior citizens. The mailings enticed elderly recipients into providing their personal information on postage-paid cards. ARM, for example, mailed an “Elder Law Update,” which appeared to be sponsored by the federal government. It claimed that responding recipients would be apprised of changes in the law that impact their personal finances and their future. Updated information promised by ARM included relevant changes to Medicare and Social Security laws.

The mailers were designed to create confusion and false impressions among the recipients. Elderly recipients, thinking their government benefits might be in jeopardy, quickly completed and returned ARM’s correspondence to National Processing Center in Washington, D.C. That address served as a mail-drop that forwarded returned mail pieces to Hennessy’s Texas address.

The Attorney General’s investigations indicated that ARM and the other defendants had a single unlawful goal – inducing seniors to respond to their mailings. The information collected from seniors allowed the defendants to create elderly client lists, which they sold to insurance agents and other vendors.

Texans who believe they have been deceived by similar fraudulent business practices may call the Office of the Attorney General’s toll-free complaint line at (800) 252-8011 or file a complaint online at www.texasattorneygeneral.gov.

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