Kip Koelsch Author

I want to call out a few of the organizations that operate on the margins of what is considered “legal” in their quest to milk our elderly of whatever income or assets they may have.

• The Seniors Trust
• The Seniors Center
• Safe Borders Coalition
• National Council for Survivors
• Senior Citizens Alliance
• Benefit Security Coalition

Notice that the top six postage-paid return envelopes look eerily similar. The letters that they came with were equally similar:

1. Claiming they could not continue “X” campaign in Washington, D.C. because they were facing debts in a very specific, named amount (e.g. $17,653.22).
2. Asking for a very specific, named amount (e.g. $16.73) as a donation.

Both of these manipulative strategies are designed to make the reader think, “Hmmm…that’s a very specific amount. It must be legitimate if they know EXACTLY what they owe and EXACTLY what they need from me down to the penny.”

Rest assured, while the above envelopes are going back to these organizations, they are not going back with a check included. They are going back with some very frank commentary (in bold, black magic marker) on their sad use of tactics that prey on the elderly. I am calling them out on their scams and telling them to take my father off their mailing lists.

I know it’s something that might not work. But, I will tell you that it made me feel a lot better and allowed me to vent some of the anger I was feeling towards these scumbags.

Again, if you have elderly parents or grandparents, I implore you to take notice of the mail they receive–the quantity and the actual organizations. You can check out many of the so-called charities with some charity-rating systems:

• CHARITY NAVIGATOR
• CHARITY WATCH

You can also just Google the organizations. Often, the first search result will contain the word “scam.” That should be a red flag (duh.).

If they seem to be receiving excessive amounts of mail (especially repeated mail from the same organizations), I suggest you find a way to get a peek at their checkbook ledgers or online accounts–they may be falling prey to the manipulation of these bottom-feeders and mailing away their assets or income one $10, $24.67 or $100 check at a time.

Spread the word.

~ by kipwkoelsch on March 28, 2017.

Posted in Critical Thinking, Elder Abuse: Mail Fraud, Uncategorized
Tags: charities, direct mail, elder abuse, elderly fraud, elderly scams, junk mail, mail fraud, mail scams, misleading mail, news, too much mail