Older People Vulnerable To `Sweepstakes Psychosis' -- `Winning' Letters From Companies Confuse Consumers

When 88-year-old Richard Lusk of California flew to Tampa, Fla., earlier this month to claim a sweepstakes prize he thought he'd won, it wasn't the first time someone had made that mistake.

According to Tampa airport officials, 20 people, most of them elderly, have flown there in recent years, looking for both their fortunes and American Family Publishers' high-profile pitchman Ed McMahon.

It wasn't even the first time Lusk had made the trip.

Undeterred by his futile trip last October, or the stroke that followed the day after his return, Lusk paid $1,700 for an airline ticket so he could hand-deliver his "winning" entry to the return address on the letter that declared: "RICHARD LUSK, FINAL RESULTS ARE IN AND THEY'RE OFFICIAL: YOU'RE OUR NEWEST $11 MILLION WINNER." Lusk didn't see the small print that said he was a winner only if he had the winning number.

The parade of disappointed seniors has outraged readers of the St. Petersburg Times, which first reported Lusk's story, and prompted calls for action against sweepstakes in Florida and elsewhere. It also focused attention on a phenomenon experts and frustrated family members too often see in the elderly - a kind of "sweepstakes psychosis" that can put savings at risk and roil families.

Typically, it begins when someone erroneously believes he or she has won the sweepstakes run by Publishers Clearing House, American Family Publishers, Reader's Digest and scores of other

companies that use the lure of a big prize to sell magazine subscriptions and merchandise. In some cases it can then spin out of control, with a variety of results. `Innocuous, common practices'

Of course, many seniors who respond to the sweepstakes solicitations understand they are simply taking their chances with millions of other entrants. And the companies that run the contests say their practices are well within legal boundaries. Sponsors of big-money sweepstakes won a major victory in California last year when a federal court ruled that their marketing techniques were "innocuous, common practices."

"It's not our objective to have people travel to Tampa," said American Family Publishers representative Lonnie Miller. "We're concerned when anyone is confused. We try to be very clear and specific in our language." No purchase is ever required to enter, she said.

But "there does seem to be a greater susceptibility of older adults to these kinds of things," said Anderson Smith, an expert on aging and memory at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.

Cognitive processes change in the normal course of aging, he said, and those changes may leave some elderly people less able than they once were to evaluate sweepstakes pitches. A more trusting generation

Smith also speculates that the elderly constitute a generation that may be misled more easily than a younger generation. "They're less cynical about what they read and more trusting about what they see."

Dave Sayer, the Publishers Clearing House spokesman who invented the Prize Patrol, said he was aware that some elderly people mistakenly believe they have won the sweepstakes offered by his employer and American Family Publishers. "We're sensitive to it, of course," he said. "We feel our mailings are clear. It says over and over again that there's no purchase required."

Sayer said the company does not target the elderly or any other demographic and describes the company as "a proactive participant in consumer education and protection efforts on the state and national level."

Spending $2,000 a month

Attorney Michael Lyons, who heads the committee on elder abuse of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, said he has seen elderly relatives of clients spend $2,000 a month on sweepstakes and scams.

When they see sweepstakes-induced problems, families sometimes end up in an attorney's office inquiring about a conservatorship or some other legal intervention, both to protect their loved ones and to keep their wealth intact. "One of the fortunate, or unfortunate, realities of life is that children are counting on their inheritance," Lyons said.

The process is traumatic: "It creates tremendous stress between the generations," Lyons said.

Sometimes, loneliness fuels sweepstakes fever, just as it sends some residents to the doctor every week, not for treatment, but because they need someone to talk to. Some people believe the need to feel important is also a factor.

Jane Wagner, a Los Angeles psychologist, has seen sweepstakes frenzy up close. Two years ago, Wagner began getting excited phone calls from her mother, Patricia Clifton, now 93, who said she was a $10 million winner.

"It started slowly," Wagner recalled, "and then I realized it was just out of bounds. She was withdrawing large amounts of money from her savings account in order to play these sweepstakes. This was someone who saved and saved and saved on small amounts of income."

Clifton lives in an apartment building for seniors where, for years, she did her own cooking and looked after her other needs. Now, Wagner learned, her mother was part of the swarm in the lobby every day when the mail arrived, eager to see what new promise of riches awaited them.

On a single day in January, Wagner happened to pick up the mail for her mother, and found 20 sweepstakes and contest offers. Many asked Clifton to send in entry fees of $5 or more to collect the big-money prize they seemed to guarantee (such fees are illegal in true sweepstakes, although they may be collected for certain skill contests).

Clifton did not see or didn't understand the fine print that says "this is not a check" on the authentic-looking phony checks that are a common feature of today's junk mail. She tried to deposit several of them in her bank account.

At least 300 companies stage sweepstakes, according to industry sources. "If you can get a list of seniors, if you can get a list of senior buildings, you're on your way. It's so deceiving, so ugly," she said. And potentially so lucrative.

When Dave Sayer was asked if he thought his statement that "the average reader who reads our mailings will find them clear and easy to understand" applied to rival American Family Publishers as well, he said: "We don't have people showing up in Tampa thinking they've won and trying to collect."

Sayer said his company has helped the Federal Trade Commission prepare "The Best Things in Life Are Free," a brochure that emphasizes that legitimate sweepstakes require no purchase or fees. The company also speaks to senior-citizens groups on consumer issues, he said.

But Publishers Clearing House has had problems in the past. In 1994, it agreed to modify the language of its mailings, publish the huge odds against winning its big prize (up to 200 million to one) and other reforms. That was after the attorneys general of 14 states had charged it with deceptive practices. American Family Publishers, meanwhile, is being investigated by officials in 19 states.

After Lusk's story first appeared, American Family Publishers reimbursed him and his son for their travel expenses and for some of the magazines Lusk had ordered. Finally convinced that he hasn't won anything in the sweepstakes, Lusk said he was looking forward to taking legal action against the company.