'ThinkJessica Campaign: Fighting Scam mail' blog discussion

Elmfield

I have just found this and would like to add well done. I spoke briefly on radio 2 about my father who died in November having given £87,000 away to mail scams and 'visitors' since feb. 2008 and also much before that. When he had no savings left Barclays bank ignored all the knowledge we had passed on and that of his bank manager and lent him a further £3,400 which went the same way. He then had nearly £400 in bank charges bewteen August and his death because he was constantly overdrawn-many from the loan repayments he had no money to pay! Barclays will not accept any fault. I feel we battle the post office and financial institutions on this. I find the sheer scale of the world wide fraud quite frightening and think more elderly people will be sucked in. Thanks to this thread i will find out more about 'Think jessica' and pass awareness on.

ab48uk

From reading Jessica's story I find that Reader's Digest promotions were the starting point.

The guy called himself Tom Champagne as (believe it or not) that was the Prize Draw Manager's real name! I used to work indirectly with Tom and met him many times. He is a really nice chap.

However, I don't care much for Reader's Digest's promotional methods. Anything I get from Tom's successor goes straight in the recycling bin. I may need to renew my registration with the Mail Preference Service.

rickbonar

0871 numbers .......... ARE STILL CHARGED

0870 and 0845 are now free on certain telcos and this has been trumpeted by the phone companies.

However all the businesses using these simply start using variants like 0844 and 0871 etc which are still charged at high rates.
Many phone customers naively believe that these are free too.

people need to be made more aware of this fact and an active campaign here to ban all premium numbers to be set up.

nanagwynn

on the subject of scams

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Mcintyre & Dodd are at it again 'unclaimed prize' scam. I got a letter today 2 feb

rickbonar

yes there are too many of these scams that take very vulnerable victims. I think Adam Crozier should pay the fines out of his own pocket rather the company because what incentive is it for him and his kind to stop this?

rickbonar

Elmfield wrote: »

I have just found this and would like to add well done. I spoke briefly on radio 2 about my father who died in November having given £87,000 away to mail scams and 'visitors' since feb. 2008 and also much before that. When he had no savings left Barclays bank ignored all the knowledge we had passed on and that of his bank manager and lent him a further £3,400 which went the same way. He then had nearly £400 in bank charges bewteen August and his death because he was constantly overdrawn-many from the loan repayments he had no money to pay! Barclays will not accept any fault. I feel we battle the post office and financial institutions on this. I find the sheer scale of the world wide fraud quite frightening and think more elderly people will be sucked in. Thanks to this thread i will find out more about 'Think jessica' and pass awareness on.

If that was my dad I would go after the perpetrators of the scam with a sawn off shot gun and blast off both their arms and legs and make sure ambulance service saves their lives too.

rickbonar

And deliver a similar bonus payment to the CEO of Barclays too.:(

LynneDorset

My Mum is 76, disabled, living alone, on a low income. Luckily (kind of) she is very deaf - so no phone scammers get to her. HOWEVER ... she receives letters from some 70 (that I have so far counted) different clairvoyants/faith-healers/luck-bringers etc etc. These letters come from all sorts of foreign countries but mostly Netherlands and Switzerland. She seems to believe everything they say and she often sends money. Some of the letters are really quite scary and intimidating. How can we go about putting a stop to this dreadful exploitation of vulnerable people?

PaulAttwood

I'm getting a lot of hassle from this company. Took up their offer as advertised, received and payed for. Then received another item that was not ordered. I rang them explaining this and asked them to cancel with them. After receiving more mail from them which I ignored I have received a letter from a debt collecting agency.

What should I do ?

Paul