It’s April Fools Day but since I don’t like fooling the users of my website my post today is about all the fooling that happens online with pardon services. The rather strange ad below is a good example of what you need to watch out for so that you don’t get fooled.
I just recently stumbled upon this so it was good timing for my post. It advertises pardon expungement services of course, but interestingly enough, when you call the number it is for an insurance company of some sort.
One of the problems with the pardon and waiver industry is that there is no professional accreditation or government oversight. So anyone with a phone number can set themselves up as a pardon and waiver service. This is an obvious example of that although in this case it appears that the company didn’t even have its own phone number.
I actually called and spoke with an agent. It seems to be a call centre that various different insurance companies hire to manage their call volume. But there was no pardon service available at all. The agent didn’t even know what I was talking about. In fact, the agent didn’t even know if the number I’d called was one of his.
Back to the video. Fortunately the production on this video is so poor that I doubt too many people were fooled by it. On the other hand you’d be surprised how many people sign up for a pardon service without putting any research into the company they are hiring.
Anyway here is the video. For the record I wouldn’t buy insurance from these people either. Don’t be fooled. And Happy April Fools Day to Everyone.