When you age into your sixties and seventies, those years are supposed to be the good period of your life. Your family has been raised, your house is paid off, and you have many options. In fact, this time of human living has been called the “golden age.”
Hah! Golden age, you say! Unfortunately, the bodies of most seniors have deteriorated in some way—heart problems, diabetic pressures, kidney failure, creeping dementia, you name it. As a result, most seniors have small suitcases of pills they have to take each day.
It’s no wonder, then, that seniors are easy prey to the medical scammers and quacks both on the phone and on the Internet. My solution to the petitioners on the phone with their quick fixes is to simply hang up.
Internet medical quackery is quite extensive and quite seductive. Sometimes I get an email message from what I would consider a legitimate company. However, the first paragraph of the message alerts me that the aid they’re promising is bogus. If the note starts out by saying “big pharma companies are trying to suppress this item or this approach” or “doctors are angry about this breakthrough”, then you should stop reading right away.
If you do read on, you may find you will have to listen (while you read) to an extensive lecture. You will be told the finer points about a product’s effects—although the scammers are very cautious about naming the product. It goes on and on about your health, about the need to get better, and how this product will help.
After about 10 minutes of being hammered by the lecturer, repeating every so often that the establishment doesn’t accept this item, they finally get to the bottom line. They will tell you that other companies may charge up to $4000 for similar items, but you can be completely cured for only $39.95 for one month’s pills or whatever.
No matter that the first paragraph of the lecture said there was nothing to be bought and that the first installment is free. Be careful at this point because they still want your credit card number for shipping costs and the follow-up in case you want more of their product later. Supposedly, you will have the free shipment for sixteen days before you have to decide if you want more of the product. They keep saying “free and no obligation.”
I ordered one of these products—vitamins of a particular type. After sixteen days, my credit card was billed $139 for the next order of the same product. I hadn’t yet received the first order to sample the vitamins. According to the Internet promotion, I was supposed to have 16 days to decide if I wanted the vitamins or not. Unfortunately, they count the days from the date of the order and not from your possible receiving date.
So I phoned them. They took no responsibility for the vitamins not having arrived, and they said it was company policy to bill for the second shipment once the sixteen days were up. I told them I didn’t want the second order and to rescind the credit card transaction. Again, they said “sorry”, but anything already processed was a completed order. My credit card company was not sympathetic either.
Once bitten, twice shy. Now and then I still get hooked for a few moments on a cure-all or “improvement” product advertized on the Internet. However, it’s not long before I hit the delete button. We know nothing about these Internet companies no matter what they claim, so why should we trust them.
