A couple of months ago, I went to a city-wide Child Safety Fair. Among the displays and demonstrations which taught things like fire safety and car seat safety, were booths which helped to sponsor the event. One of the booths was handing out information for child id kits, where your child's fingerprints etc would be taken for the just-in-case situation where identification would be helpful (the scary stuff we never want to think about). I gave them my information so they could send me the free kit.
I didn't hear back from the company until two days ago when I received a phone call.
Of course, when the representative called me, the kids were running around acting crazy and loud. That's my excuse anyway. They called to make an appointment to come see me and my husband in our home to get our kids' fingerprints etc. It threw me off, because I expected the kit to come in the mail for me to fill out, but I was off guard, and I made the appointment.
And then I had time to consider it...
I called them back today before our scheduled appointment. "I'm confused why you need to come into my home, and what exactly is your company's name again?" It was a life insurance company salesman whose purpose was to try and sell us a policy. The "free child id kit" was their foot in the door.
I am writing to let y'all know about this, what I consider to be, scam. I'm glad I listened to my instincts and called the company back before I let the salesman into my home.
I know there are legitimate federal programs out there that take child fingerprints for safety databases. I assumed that because I was at the city sponsored safety fair that this was one of them. That is where I went wrong. I consider myself very protective and savvy when it comes to stuff like this. I am humbled that I almost fell for it. Almost.
Do you have experience with legitimate child id resources? Have you ever been scammed?
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Comments (13)
Uggh. I would have been annoyed by that. What was the name of the company? The police depart always sponsors a "family day" every year. They do the finger printing there. Whenever I've seen another company doing fingerprinting kits, they take the prints there. I would have found it odd that they didn't do them there and not bothered with it.
@Erika_Steele@xanga - The company was American Income Life (they never identified themselves until I specifically asked over the phone). This is the site about the program that they were pushing. http://www.ailife.com/Main/products.aspx?submenu=ChildSafeKit
The salesman kept saying stuff like, "we're endorsed by the police." I don't really care. It's a program meant to get you in the door in order to try and sell me life insurance. It's a false pretense. And that's the problem.
One of the reasons I almost fell for it was because I thought it was one of those police department sponsored things like you describe, @Erika_Steele@xanga. It was at their event, and their stuff said, "police endorsed." But it was a guise. I should have known better because, like you say, they weren't taking the prints right there...But I've never seen nor done this before and this was my learning experience I guess. It came with a curveball.
@sarahsmurfette@xanga - thanks. Now, I know what to look out for. The police department in your area should do one for you or send you the kit if you call them.
wow you should talk to the police department about that. maybe they don't know.
Hey, the way I see it, you caught it before you let a salesman into your house, and you had your kids safety in mind the whole time. I'd say good job.
This does seem, while likely not illegal, rather unethical. I'm glad you published their name in the comments, this sounds like the type of company I would rather not patronize.
Whoa ! That is brutally dishonest ! Very immoral. I would report them to the BBB. Here's the link. LINK
I agree with @MyPublicSite@xanga . Police departments generally have a policy about NOT endorsing companies. I can't imagine any in the country "endorsing" a life insurance company. They are playing fast and loose with semantics, I suspect. Very deceptive! And YUCKY!
I seriously doubt the police would endorse that anyway, since the way you SHOULD have a kit done is through your local police department...weird! And dishonest! Glad you caught on early.
Honestly, I would be concerned about giving a government agency fingerprints also. That is because I am super extra paranoid though.
One of the things I do at work is answering phones... aka first line of defense against scams and unwanted sales solicitations. I have very low tolerance for this kind of b.s., my blood is boiling right now thinking about it- a SCAM with your child's identifying information! What bastards. We kept getting an attempted scam at our house, and we started calling them until they hated us enough to not want to bother us anymore. Hubs is even less tolerant than I am, hah. I just re-read that comment before posting, and realized that I have a very serious case of "leave me alone", lol. I'm actually very nice in person!"I am writing to let y'all know about this, what I consider to be, scam."
that wasn't a scam. that is like calling food samples at a store, a scam. it would be if they charged you for the cup containing the sample, or in your case for the delivery of the test. it also would be a scam if they were doing it to get into your house to rob you, but not targeted marketing. it is free because you are the product, and advertising is what they buy, which they value at or above the cost of the freebee.
nothing is free. the only reason police would facilitate it for free is due to it being a minor preventative cost.
see the most important thing to the company is that you want adequate coverage/insurance for your family. you saw child ID being sufficient, they don't so they would try to get their foot in the door and upsell you, preying on your fears.
it isn't ethical, but it is legal. what the fair was, was market research so they had more targeted advertising than blind door to door sales.
if you are going to do something like that, make sure you leave with the results and that the advertising they got out of it was done with before. if they don't do so, only accept email things to follow you home, and have a spoof email so it getting hacked doesn't matter.
@lenybobsyouruncle@xanga - I disagree with your synopsis and definitions, but to each their own. This was a dishonest practice. It was meant for dishonest gain. It was, as another commenter said, semantics to begin with, when they said they were police endorsed (I have since researched what they meant by that, and it is that there is an international police association UNION that gets life insurance from them). They were tricking me into thinking that their child id kit was police endorsed. It was deceptive on purpose. That is the very definition of scam.
From Merriam Webster: SCAM: a fraudulent or deceptive act or operation (ex. an insurance scam)
I mean, this just seems elementary.
Too bad they were so devious about that. Would have appreciated them being more honest and upfront about the whole thing.