A Louisville man contacted the Better Business Bureau this week after receiving a brown envelope from the “National Processing Center,” located at 325 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C. (actually, this address is a "maildrop," not the physical location of "National Processing Center.")
The man, a senior citizen, said the envelope looked similar to another envelope he received from Social Security on the same day, a mailing about a $250 stimulus payment being made to Social Security recipients.
Inside the envelope was a lone postcard. The headline at the top said, “Important Projected Medicare Changes.” The postcard had spaces for information requested from the senior citizen and advised him to complete and return the postcard if he wanted “more information about these (Medicare) changes and how they will personally affect you.”
From what the Better Business Bureau can tell, the “National Processing Center” is not doing anything illegal. But the “National Processing Center” is not the government.
The citizen who contacted the BBB had completed the postcard and had it ready to mail. Like many senior citizens, he called the BBB because he was uncertain whether the postcard may be an official request for information. As many people would be, he was interested in knowing more about any “proposed significant reduction” in the Medicare program.
In truth, the “National Processing Center” has a different agenda., maybe a couple of agendas. BBB doesn't know how the "Center" plans to use information from people returning the postcard. But based on knowledge of how similar mailings have been used, possible uses for the information requested include:
- The “National Processing Center” may be building a “lead list” of people who reply to the mailing, which could be sold, for example, to insurance companies. The insurance company’s sales people might then contact the senior citizens to sell a Medicare supplement or another insurance product. The senior citizen having returned the card to “request more information” would enable the salespeople to call even citizens who have placed their phone numbers on the Do Not Call registry.
- The card may also be used to build a list of citizens concerned about Medicare cuts, which will be sold to a Washington lobby seeking to promote “grassroots support” (or opposition) to legislation that is opposed or supported by an interest group which hired the lobby firm. The position being advocated by the interest group may or may not be in the best interest of, or agree with the position of, the person who is concerned about any proposed Medicare cuts.
Each person should make his/her own decision whether to complete and return a postcard that asks for a reply in order to receive "more information." But the Better Business Bureau thinks you should know that because a mailing comes in a brown, official-looking envelope from the "National Processing Center" and has a Washington, D.C. address doesn't mean that the mailing is from the government or that you have any need to reply to the mailing. It's possible that you may decide the best place for the mailing is the trash can. For you, that may be the right decision.
Here is how the postcard looks.
Front of postcard:
Back of Postcard (omits lines consumer had completed providing personal information):
