Attorney General's News Release

July 17, 2006

Nixon, Missouri seniors team up to tackle scam junk mailers

Volunteer mail sorter Pam Cowan of the Missouri Retired Teachers Association shows Attorney General Nixon a suspicious piece of mail collected in northeast Missouri during Senior Sting 2006.

Kirksville, Mo. — Seniors from across northeast Missouri were in Kirksville today, helping Attorney General Jay Nixon expose con artists who target Missourians using the mail. In an operation dubbed Senior Sting 2006, more than 300 volunteer seniors kept all of their mail solicitations - or junk mail - during the month of May and submitted it to the Attorney General's Office.

The volunteers in Kirksville met at St. Andrews Apartments to help sort through the mail that was collected in May. Nixon's Consumer Protection Division will be looking for fraudulent offers of lottery winnings, charity solicitations, magazine subscriptions and other attempts to mislead or defraud Missourians through their mailboxes.

“The scam artists know that Missouri has one of the toughest No Call programs in the country,” Nixon said. “Spam filters are also getting tougher. So the crooks are relying more heavily on the mail to try to separate people from their money.”

Nixon says he'll take legal action against companies or people found to be violating Missouri's consumer protection laws.

Attorney General Nixon inspects pieces of junk mail collected and sorted by seniors who volunteered to help in Senior Sting 2006.

The Attorney General also held events in eight other Missouri cities where senior volunteers sorted through the large volume of mail and turned it over to Nixon's investigators.

Missourians who receive suspicious offers in the mail can contact the Attorney General's Office through its Web site, www.ago.mo.gov, or by calling the Consumer Protection Hotline toll-free at 1-800-392-8222.

Nixon reminds consumers they can opt out of many mail solicitations by writing to Mail Preference Service, Direct Marketing Association, PO Box 643, Carmel, NY 10512 or by visiting www.dmaconsumers.org. Consumers can opt out of pre-approved credit card offers at www.optoutprescreen.com or 1-888-5OPTOUT.

Above and below: Volunteer sorters go through piles of mail solicitations at St. Andrews Apartments in Kirksville.

Partnering with Nixon for Senior Sting 2006 are AARP Missouri, Accion Social Communitaria in St. Louis, Clergy Coalition of St. Louis, Concerned Clergy Coalition of Kansas City, Guadalupe Centers of Kansas City, Jewish Community Center of St. Louis, Missouri Association of Area Agencies on Aging, Missouri Association for Family and Community Education, Missouri Retired Teachers Association and NAACP, Springfield branch.

Inquiries from consumers should be directed to consumer@ago.mo.gov or 1-800-392-8222 (from within Missouri) or 573-751-3321 (outside Missouri).

All media inquiries should be directed to Press Secretary John Fougere.

E-mail      Phone: 573-751-8844         Fax: 573-751-5818