FRANKFORT, Ky. — They lend a whole new meaning to the phrase, “The check is in the mail.”

        If you've got a mailbox, you've probably received them — those checks that promise a few bucks. All you have to do is cash them. What is harder to determine is the cost of that seeming largesse.

        The Better Business Bureau politely refers to them as “rebate” or “incentive” checks.

        Others say they're just the latest tools of direct mail marketers, scams to lure people into unwittingly signing up for anything from a long distance telephone service to a travel club that offers little more than a brochure and monthly payments for life.

        “It's just kind of a rip off,” said Rep. Dwight Butler, R-Harned.

        Mr. Butler got a few of the checks himself. They were annoying, but it got Mr. Butler to wondering how widespread was the problem. It turns out to be a lot more of an issue than just junk mail in Breckinridge County. The Federal Trade Commission includes the practice on its list of “Everyday mailbox scams,” right there with chain letters, bogus charities, pyramid schemes and foreign lotteries.

        Mr. Butler said he received one solicitation that included information about how a single telephone call would enable the consumer to cancel at anytime without obligation. The only problem was there was no telephone number included.

        “New scams to suck people in,” said Rep. Susan Westrom, D-Lexington, who has joined Mr. Butler as a sponsor of legislation to curb some of the abuses.

        Ms. Westrom said her mother received one such check from an oil company credit card connection. For only $59 a year, it promised assistance to lower utility and grocery bills. All you had to do was cash the $5.20 check.

        A little closer examination of the fine print showed the assistance was two more $5 checks. A swap of $59 for $15 didn't seem like much of a bargain.

        “If you have to use a magnifying glass for everything you look at, it gets pretty tedious,” Ms. Westrom said.

        The BBB and the Kentucky attorney general's office say many of the mailbox checks are legal, in the sense that the fine print contains the required disclosures and disclaimers.

        To Mr. Butler and Ms. Westrom, being legal doesn't necessarily make it right.

        Their proposal would allow consumers, who might be completely aware of the ramifications, cancel any arrangement they make by canceling one of the unsolicited checks within a certain period of time. And the solicitors would have to provide a real, honest-to-goodness operating telephone number, toll-free, for people to call and cancel.

        “If you want to cancel, you should have that option with no expense to you,” Mr. Butler said.

        Heather Clary of the BBB for central and eastern Kentucky said the checks appeal to the basic instinct of wanting to get something for nothing.

        “They're so quick to want to cash it, they don't realize what they're signing up for,” Ms. Clary said. “We've had people come in here and ask, "Can they do this?' and unfortunately the answer is yes, they can.

        “As with everything, the consumer has to be really careful what they put their signature on,” Ms. Clary said.

        Ms. Westrom is hopeful something might be done to give consumers a chance to reconsider what might be a rash act. But after what happened when she tried last legislative session to rein in sweepstakes, she is not so sure.

        After breezing through the House, the legislation was killed in the Senate when sweepstakes company officials prevailed on Republican leaders.

        Ms. Westrom said the check scheme is bad. “I don't think they're as bad as the bottom dwellers in the sweepstakes.”

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