loads of money-'doubt it!

[macmac]

I've just recieved a letter in the post telling me I've won oodles of cash in some draw overseas :o
Apparently it's 100% guaranteed :)
the fact I haven't entered any draw is irrelevant ;)
All I have to do is to fill out the form with my card details including the 3 digit security code :oand they'll send me the money ;D
Do people really fall for this?I suppose sadly they do

[macmac]

[ACE]

I've lost count of the millions that I have won, without even buying a ticket. But seriously, my wife works for social services,  she is not allowed to name names etc but she does let me know what has been happening at work when we sit down to dinner.

Apparently some of the people on her case books, (she works in adult abuse) have been taken in by some of these scams and they have been robbed by thousands of pounds. These cases get reported to the police but as the scam is usually from another country, their hands are tied.

We can sit back and laugh at the idiotic letters and promises we get, but some of the older folk with their trusting natures get had very easily. If only 1 in 50,0000 gets had it is still a result for the scammers.

Just make sure your elderly relatives know the score when you see them next.

[Old bird]

The solicitors where I work the main man's mum is one of them and they are horrendous as soon as she replied to one of these "fantastic stories" she was deluged with cr*p from loads and loads of dubious sources.

She had no money and spent a fair bit on these ridiculous offers - luckily she did not give her bank details away.  Anyway the long and the short of it was that we had her post re-directed by the Post Office to our office.  They did this for 2 years and then said that they can't do it any longer so for the past 2 years I have to go to the sorting office to collect her mail and she is still getting a few of these dubious mailings!! After 4 years they still haven't given up.

She is unaware of them as she only gets the post that she needs to see but she is in her 90's now and was considered "fair game".

OB

>:(

[Chrispy]

I have at least a dozen uncles in Africa who have left me mi££ions, they can never say what their name is but as it is the same as mine so I must be their next of kin ;D

My OH mother used to work in an old folks home, she had to check all magazines for those scratch cards, because if a resident got hold of one, it was so difficult to explain to the very cheerful resident that they had not won anything what was worth more than the cost of the phone call.

[jonny211]

The hassle doesn't just go one way though, have a look at this website and in particular the trophy room and the scambaiting forums.

http://www.419eater.com

Jon

[manicscousers]

that looks as if it could be a lot of fun, we had to stop Ray's dad doing those 'you have won a fortune' scams last year, he'd only managed to send a couple of hundred pounds before we found out  :o

[tricia]

Registering with the Mailing preference service will help prevent a lot of junk mail:

http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/mpsr/mps_choosetype.html

and with the telephone prefence service most of the selling cold calls, too.

http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/

Both are free.

Tricia

[PurpleHeather]

Scams are it seems, big business world wide and quite a lot of foreigners get e-mails offering them jobs in the UK. All they have to do is send in money for their visa and work permit by Western Union to the spoof employer.

There are those raffles you won a prize on, they list the prizes but don't say which one is yours (most of us do buy charity raffle tickets from time to time) where you send off a fee for the post and packing, you get sent some thing worth much less than the packing fee.

Free holidays if you pay a processing fee after going to a meeting to sell Time Share.

I think they have stopped most of those which ask you to call 0900 numbers at £1+ a minute but there are advice web sites which look official which still use them.

I have not fallen for any of them but have seen plenty of reports about them on Watch Dog type programmes, sadly these programmes are generally aired at the same time as the soaps which are more popular so are missed by potential victims.

I think it was Noel Coward who said:-

The young know everything
The middle aged are suspicious of everything
The old believe everything.

What I can not understand is this change with elderly people, many of whom seem like sensible people who had responsible jobs. They appear to be perfectly capable in many ways yet apparently they are the ones who mostly fall for these scams.

I know it is said that you can only scam a greedy person, so do we get greedier as we age?

[Flighty]

Purple Heather I don't think that we get greedier as we get older, in fact just the opposite!
I think that most elderly people who fall for such scams are ones whose mental abilities have now diminished somewhat and tend to be easily confused and often forgetful. That's certainly been the case for the people I know, or have heard of, who have sadly fallen for these scams, which incidentally are often specially targeted at them.
I knew of one elderly lady who lost thousands of pounds in this way and her only reason for doing them was that she thought that she'd be able to give lots more money to her favourite charity, which of course ended up with next to nothing.