ABSTRACT
Using telemarketing in sales has become a common practice in a wide range of businesses in recent decades. Despite the rising popularity of online sales, telemarketing remains a common and popular marketing method. Initiated by a marketer, telemarketing brings commerce into a customer’s home. Ostensibly, this makes it easier for customers to fulfill their wishes. These advantages are particularly significant for customers whose limited mobility makes it difficult to access stores or service providers. Nevertheless, despite its many advantages, telemarketing has inherently impersonal characteristics that also embody potential risks to consumers. When companies and organizations do not adopt and enforce a code of ethics, telemarketing is a fertile ground for consumer fraud and unethical behavior. This is true for legitimate commercial companies, but far more so for companies that exist solely for using telemarketing to defraud people. These companies seek potential victims who are easy to deceive and, therefore, direct their marketing activities at people with characteristics and weaknesses that make them more susceptible to fraud. Stereotypes about the elderly (“ageism”) and processes that often accompany ageing make senior citizens a preferred target for telemarketing fraud. This chapter reviews the phenomenon of telemarketing fraud and traces the main reasons why elderly people have become a preferred target for fraud. The discussion also raises the dilemma of choosing between protecting the elderly against fraud and the desire to preserve their right to make independent decisions.
