I recently received an unsolicited piece of mail with membership cards and a letter welcoming me to “American Prescription Discounts.” In glowing terms, the letter states:
“American Prescription Discounts was created to make prescription medications more affordable for everyone living in the United States.
“To begin saving, present your card to the pharmacist the next time you fill a prescription medicine. You may see average savings of nearly 50% on all your prescription medications.”
Being naturally suspicious, I wondered if this was a scam. The fact that my name did not appear on the membership card or even in the letter made me even more suspicious than ever. The letter’s salutation simply said, “Dear New Member.” Next, it said “UP TO 50%.” Anything that says “up to” always makes me suspicious. Sure, 50% might happen under unusual circumstances but what is the average savings?
To check on what others have said, I suggest you go to Google and enter the following search:
prescription discounts card scam
I did that and result was eye-opening. I was especially pleased to read an article by David Lazarus in the Los Angeles Times at http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jul/25/business/la-fi-lazarus-20130726. Lazarus received a letter claiming up to 75% discounts, sounding much better than the offer I received that only offered “up to 50%”
Lazarus writes:
“But when I stopped in at both a CVS and a Walgreens branch to ask the pharmacists what they knew of the program, I was told that the cards apparently work, though it may be a stretch to expect a 75% discount.”
David Lazarus then spent some time investigating the company and even tried to call the company on the telephone. He reached a number of recordings but never got connected to a human. He checked the return address on the letter but found no company of that name is listed in the building. (My letter had a different return address.)
After some detective work, Lazarus did eventually contact a spokesman for ScriptRelief which appears to be the parent company. The ScriptRelief privacy policysays that “we may share your information with other companies whose products and services may be of interest to you.”
In other words, ScriptRelief’s privacy policy clearly gives the company the ability to profit from people’s personal information.
I then stopped at my local drugstore and asked a pharmacist about the company. He laughed. He said he didn’t immediately recognize the company name but he sees similar cards all the time, apparently originating from different corporate names. He stated that such cards are close to worthless. Most people do not save 50% or 75%. Instead, a 5% savings is close to the average in his pharmacy and that only occurs if the customer has no other form of insurance, such as an employer’s group medical plan or Medicare or Medicaid or even Obamacare. In fact, Obamacare saves a lot more money than does “American Prescription Discounts.”
If you receive an unsolicited discount card, I suggest you do what I eventually did: throw it in the trash.
To further check on past experiences, go to Google.com and search for:
prescription discounts card scam
- British Prime Minister Suggests Banning Some Online Messaging Apps
- Firefox Improves Privacy with History-Wiping ‘Forget’ Button and DuckDuckGo Search Support
Categories: Scams
9 replies ›
Leave a comment
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Privacy Blog 
Oho, so that’s it. I got one today. The mail truck was there when I went out for the Sunday paper. That was weird enough – but it gets worse. The mailman had put the letter with the American Prescription Discount cards in the mailbox, and yet, although the mailbox is the large rural style with an opening a foot wide, had put a small-quarto-size book-package from Amazon on the pavement at the garage door!
What sort of pull does APD have that they can get the USPS to deliver on Sunday and all these chain pharmacies to honor these cards at all?
LikeLike
Glad I found this article. I was wondering what this was. Thank you so much!
LikeLike
I received the mailing from American Prescription Discounts after I enrolled in Express-Scripts. I’m not sure how APD found out that I’m a customer of Express-Scripts, but it does not make me happy.
LikeLike
I got one of those cards and I promptly called my own insurance. They said to me to SHRED it. It’s a scam. My own insurance ‘s prescription coverage is cheaper than this outfit, anyway.
LikeLike
Thanks for the post!!
I too was curious about this “Discount” card from an unknown company and wondered about how they could profit off their victims.
I wonder what unfortunate events would happen to those suckers that fall for this, would they receive endless spam in the mail and have to change their phone number? Would they have their identity stolen or their credit exploited? Hmm
LikeLike
Got 2nd or 3rd one yesterday. Into trash already because I checked with my insurance about it. It’s a scam to get my personal information. My own insurance is by far more cheaper when it comes to prescription coverage.
LikeLike
Where do these are so-called companies getting peoples’ mailing information from? From public records?
Are they misrepresenting themselves to get private information from vulnerable people?
Seems ScriptRelief is parent company of American Prescription Discounts, sending unsolicited mail.
Seems not registered with BBB and AARP rep did not know anything about this company.
Complaints noted on web.
People being advised to report concerns to the police.
LikeLike
Thank you for your research and this article. Our private informationis simply that, PRIVATE, and we’d like to keep it this way. We need help with prescription drug costs, but we’ll find another source that won’t take advantage of us and cause problems.
LikeLike
I’m reading that this is ‘probably a scam , which I agree it most likely is…however. I have YET to find anyone who has actually been victimized? I believe that insurance companies and pharmacies would be better off if you didn’t use the card, so of course they have a vested interest in telling you to rip it up. But the phrase of “we may share your information with other companies whose products and services may be of interest to you.” is commonly used by ALL business’s that you voluntarily sign up for..no biggie. So, ya saving 5% isn’t much, but ..still %5 is a savings. I’m continuing to research this until I find a valid reason to not use it.
LikeLike