Iowa Attorney General, Tom Miller, reminds residents to be wary of mailers appearing to come from governmental agencies. These could in fact be from marketers. Two out-of-state operations have recently been charged with sending deceptive mailings to Iowans. “Consumers should read all mailers carefully and contact government agencies if they are unsure if they are legitimate,” Miller says. In some cases, these include disclaimers in tiny print. The rest of the piece, however, has addresses, graphics and language designed to give the overall resemblance of an official government document. The State of Iowa sued Centurion Filing Services and Dean G. Marshlack of St. Petersberg, Fla. In late November. The company used an Iowa Certificate Service and a Des Moines address to distribute 7,170 mailers to Iowa business owners. These looked like invoices and stated their articles had been filed with the secretary of state and then requested they order a certificate for $67.50. However, these certificates are available from the Iowa Secretary of State for only $5. The lawsuit seeks an injunction to stop this activity and fines of up to $40,000 for each violation of the Consumer Fraud Act. A Georgia marketing firm has been ordered to stop sending mailers targeting older Iowans. In a December settlement agreement with the state, Direct Mail Processing, LLC and Rehg Data Assets, Inc. and three executives from Marietta denied violating the Consumer Fraud Act, but agreed to pay $40,000. They distributed mailings that appeared to offer government benefits for final expenses. This was really an insurance marketing blast. No Iowans are believed to have bought the insurance from these solicitations, although several hundred returned the card with their personal information.
