INDIANAPOLIS -- The following story is transcribed exactly as it appeared on the "Nightcast," May 19, 2003.

Ray Cortopassi: It's not about the product, but the way a company sets out to promote its prize.

Video

Hidden Cameras Captured Sales Pitch

Martha Weaver: As our Call 6 team found out, the state says those scratch and win cards popping up around town are illegal, since a lot of information is left out. In tonight's Special Assignment, Rafael Sanchez gets kicked out of a business hoping you will call to collect your prize.

Rafael Sanchez: So you can't answer any questions for us? Employee: No. Sanchez: So if I call this number? Employee: Bye. TriStarclean.com. Rafael: OK. Employee: That's all you got. Rafael: Thank you sir. Appreciate your time.

Sanchez: These are the people who want to spend an hour or two with the promise of a prize.

Tijen Lines (homeowner): After 2 1/2 hours it's 10:30 p.m. She says she'll have to get back with me. I didn't get my prize that night.

Jeremy Hulett (homeowner): They said they'd like to send someone out and they never said what it was for.

Sanchez: Prostar Industries, located at 501 National Avenue in Indianapolis, is the company behind in these Draw Poker scratch-and-win cards. If you have a winning combination, you have to call to find out what you've won among the five prizes -- a washer/dryer, a vacation package, a Playstation or X-Box, a gift package valued at $200, or a $5,000 cash award.

You're told you'll get your prize after you sit through a demonstration of an air filtration System. There's a reason you don't hear the word vacuum cleaner. It's best explained by a Prostar employee during this home demonstration.

Sales representative: If the girls in the gift room were to describe a TriStar, nobody would want to see it because basically the only thing they could say was, "I think its a vacuum cleaner," and people are like, "I don't want to see a vacuum cleaner, you know, so the phone room girls really don't know what we're showing. Plus, you really have to see it to believe it.

Sanchez: We wanted to see it too -- so two people let us place hidden cameras in their home.

When you call to claim your prize no one will tell you that the price for the vacuum starts at $1,800.

Homeowner: Why is so much? Why does it cost so much? Sales Representative. Umm ... I don't really know.

Sanchez: This other sales rep also didn't know why the 86 people who bought a Tristar won anything but the vacation package.

Sanchez: You sold 86 of these. How many people have won the $5,000 prize or the washer dryer? Sales representative: Nobody has won it yet. Sanchez: Out of 86, no one has won the washer dryer? Sales representative: No

Sanchez: When we went to ask the company about their product and prizes ...

Employee: Get out. I am asking you to leave. Sanchez: Who are you sir? Employee: I don't have to answer any questions. But you do have to leave the property.

Sanchez: We were swept out the door, so we turned to the Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division.

The A.G.'s office says the scratch cards violate the state's Gifts and Contest act.

Dave Paetzmann (Consumer Protection Division): Indiana law requires that the distributor tell the consumer what prize they have won before they go through the sales pitch.

Sanchez: The A.G.'s office also adds that the cards also fail to tell people they have to sit through the demonstration to get the prize.

It also doesn't mention that their vacation package offer includes a fee.

Paetzmann: We will be sure to let the promoter and distributor know that it doesn't satisfy Indiana's legal requirements.

Sanchez: So the A.G.'s office plans to ask the company to reprint those prize cards. Beyond that, the Central Indiana Better Business Bureau has given Prostar its lowest rating, plus the company is highlighted in that agency's warning to consumers, also known as the Hot Topics List, which came out earlier this month.

In the next few days, you'll hear from former employees who talk about the company's recruiting process and what happens behind the scenes.