We got one of those for my MIL about 5 or 6 years ago. She started talking about them after my SIL had a stroke and laid on the floor for 8 hours until her DH came home from work. As a result of that stroke she has been in a nursing home and cannot move the right side of her body. Now if she had one of these maybe things would be different, but, she was only in her sixties and in good health didn't think she needed one. So, we got it for my MIL as a birthday gift (it sure makes it easy every year as to what we are going to get her besides sending her flowers) and she just loves it. She and we have piece of mind. We live a little more than hour away so it will take time for us to react in an emergency. It not only works in the house, but, we went outside in the yard and it worked as far as across the street into her neighbors drive way. So this way if she is outside near the house all she has to do is push the button if she needs help. The company is US and their operators are all US based. We did everything online with them including paying them every year. I would highly recommend them. The name of the company is Alert One http://www.alert-1.com/ Here is a link that might be useful: Alert One

The DO hire people to handwrite or sign those things. Lawyers do it all the time. Have you ever gotten a ticket and then received a barrage of mail from law offices? The white envelopes are all handwritten and stamped like personal mail so that you open it. Years ago when Humphrey was running for office, they hired people to sign reams and reams of letters touting how great the guy was and signing off with "your nieghbor" and a signature (you didn't have to use your real name) and then stuffed into a stamped envelope. I was one of them who got hired. Now days there are computerized sigs for things like this but they look so obvious. They still use real humans for such jobs. I know for a fact that auto dealerships hire people to hand write thank you cards and send them out to those who purchased new vehicles. They sign the name of whoever the saleman was that sold the car.

We screen all calls, friends/family know this~~so they listen to the message and start yelling into the phone to us. I know that IRS deal is a scam, they would never call people. One we get is as they say from our computer server and want us to punch certain numbers~~~Blah Blah~~~it is all BS! We heard on the news, the reason we still get these calls even tho we are on the do not call list, is because the list is only for your state and these people are calling from out of state:( We get at least 4-5 calls a day, I hate it!!

Nicole, again I suspect you know this, but the best way to keep from receiving garbage is to be protective your email address, giving it only to businesses where your communication is important. Use a second email for all other purposes. I've done this for some time and it does work. Use a second, throw-away address for sites (like this one) that require an email but messages from which you would pay much less atention to if any at all. In my "real" email account there are no ads, no solicitations, no bulk. Even some sites that are essential (financial and investment institutions, insurance companies, household utilitiy providers, charities, etc., sometimes need to be coached. As with, No marketing messages, no special offers, no solicitations, nothing but statements and matters that are urgent. It does work.