Gran being scammed what can we do?

misgrace

honeyD wrote: »

My Husband had the idea of letting her think she is doing them or let her do magazine competitions and if she doesnt win just buy her a little thing every now and again. Could be enough for her to have the "win" feeling but only she wouldnt really have won. Hm could that work? I dont know..

What a brilliant idea

To OP, what a shame that this is happening to her, personally I am with you 100% in removing her letters, you are doing it for the right reasons.

Could the police do anything about this?, or even watchdog?

mrcow

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Whether your intentions are honourable or not, it's interfering with the Royal Mail, which is an offence.

No it isn't. Not at all.

In fact it's the one sure-fire thing that is going to get this in check.

You need to remove these letters and find out exactly how bad this is - there could be more than you realise.

Also - is your Gran signed up to the Mail Preference Service? - helps to stop junk - whether or not it will stop these scammers is questionable as they seem to operate wtjhin their own laws, but it can't hurt

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

Abbafan1972

I remember hearing about Jessica's story and being really shocked by it.

I would definitely go through your Gran's mail and make sure she's not getting any of these letters. It's not like you're doing it in a malicious way.

It really is awful how people can take advantage like this.

an1179

My Aunt also get these and she spend load of money on them her son took her cheque book off her for safe keeping but she gets these letters by the barrow load. My mom is always getting letter from charities and she send to these which hopefully is doing some good

ljw2701

About 12 years ago I used to work in a Post Office - we had an elderly lady customer who came in weekly to buy postal orders to send to these types of companies. She was very open and chatted away about it and though we tried (in vain) to convince her it was all a con there was nothing we could actually do about it. The amount of money she wasted was horrendous - it's awful that it's still going on. Personally, I'd take the mail and check it regardless of whether it's an offence or not.

foreign_correspondent

I hate these people with a passion - my gran also gets sucked into these, though we have tried and tried to explain to her they are scams. I used the mailing preference service for her, which seems to have cut it down a bit, then binned any I spotted at her house - however I am close enough to pop in quite regularly. It may be illegal to interfere with her mail, but so is conning old people out of the little cash they have, and I know which option I think it most moral.

DVardysShadow

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Whether your intentions are honourable or not, it's interfering with the Royal Mail, which is an offence.

This old chestnut again. If it is in the course of transmission, it is an offence to interfere. But we are talking about mail which has been delivered - and for a crime to be committed, the act must be to the detriment of the addressee. Do you see anyone arguing that confiscating gran's chance of winning millions from Nigerian lotteries is to her detriment?

mrcow

ljw2701 wrote: »

About 12 years ago I used to work in a Post Office - we had an elderly lady customer who came in weekly to buy postal orders to send to these types of companies. She was very open and chatted away about it and though we tried (in vain) to convince her it was all a con there was nothing we could actually do about it. The amount of money she wasted was horrendous - it's awful that it's still going on. Personally, I'd take the mail and check it regardless of whether it's an offence or not.

Surely you had a duty of care to contact the police if you were actively witnessing this woman as being a victim of a potential scam.

foreign_correspondent

DVardysShadow wrote: »

This old chestnut again. If it is in the course of transmission, it is an offence to interfere. But we are talking about mail which has been delivered - and for a crime to be committed, the act must be to the detriment of the addressee. Do you see anyone arguing that confiscating gran's chance of winning millions from Nigerian lotteries is to her detriment?

Absolutely - I cannot envisage the day when someone would get punished for binning mail the sole purpose of which is procuring the details of vulnerable people to take money from, under false pretences.

honeyD

mrcow wrote: »

No it isn't. Not at all.

In fact it's the one sure-fire thing that is going to get this in check.

You need to remove these letters and find out exactly how bad this is - there could be more than you realise.

Also - is your Gran signed up to the Mail Preference Service? - helps to stop junk - whether or not it will stop these scammers is questionable as they seem to operate wtjhin their own laws, but it can't hurt

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

Thanks for the link Mrcow, Ive signed her up.
See my way of thinking is the same, she could be getting more than we know about. People say to her they are scams but she just says "oh I'll put it down here then (beside her chair) until later" knowing full well the bin is at the other side so we know she isnt going to throw it away. Its like she knows but doesnt want to believe it.
I will show my sister this thread so she can see she needs to do something and it isnt illegal to check her mail and remove anything suspicious.