In a way, ads like that can be a bit scarier. We recently bought a house and through the next 3 months I got so many scary warnings in the mail, most of which looked legit and official, saying that if I dont visit sign up for X then I will be billed Y, or my house will be at risk of Z, and other such tactics. I was not expecting this inondation but I can see someone falling for this.

Not trying to justify either, BTW. Its just scary how many different ways there are to defraud people.