Millions of seniors turn to monitoring companies to help keep them safe in the event of a fall or other medical emergency. When Kathy told me about an email from Bay Alarm Medical, I had to check it out. On May 15, the website at www.bayalarmmedical.com reported a scam that targets seniors. Their post said, “Bay Alarm Medical is currently investigating reports of fraudulent telemarketing calls to our customers. Please be aware of calls offering free home alarm systems and/or home installations.” The announcement went on to say that the company became aware of the scam when customers began calling the company to report what seemed like suspicious sales techniques.
This type of scam appears to be on the rise and there were several reports in May. JSOnline (www.jsonline.com) reported that Wisconsin State consumer protection officials began receiving complaints about automated telephone calls offering free equipment for medical alert monitoring. According to the JSOnline announcement, the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection released an alert that said, “In each of these robocalls, seniors were told that a piece of emergency alert equipment was going to be delivered to them, free of charge.”
There was a similar report on the television station at keloland.com in Sioux Falls on May 16, which stated that one local resident received a call from Life Alert advising her that the company wanted to set up a time to install the equipment she had paid for.
From all reports, the calls that are received are either an automated call or an extremely aggressive salesperson. The best way to handle this type of call is to hang up immediately. If Caller ID displays a telephone number, it would also be helpful to report that telephone number to your state consumer protection department.
