Scamming the elderly by post

ashleypride

supermum1958 wrote: »

The Royal Mail are knowingly profiting from an evil trade. This is not right.

What exactly do you want RM to do though?

I want RM to deliver my mail all of it, I don't want them having any legal right to rifle though it, and deliver what they think I want.

lincroft1710

supermum1958 wrote: »

actually, it's really easy to tell from the envelope: they nearly all say there's a cheque for £x,000,000 waiting for you, or a car, or something. It really is obvious.

So all the scammers have to do is send out their swindling letters in plain brown or white envelopes and RM won't have a clue what the contents are.

fluffnutter

supermum1958 wrote: »

The Royal Mail are knowingly profiting from an evil trade. This is not right.

Here is the University of Exeter study:

http://www.exeter.ac.uk/research/rkt/casestudies/contractresearchcasestudies/scamscasestudy/

I agree that profiteering for an evil trade is not right, but I guess some would argue that it's not evil. Just as alcohol, etc. is not inherently evil. Lots of things end up causing problems purely because of how they're used.

To most people this kind of junk mail is little more than an irritation and there are things that can be done about it. Personally I don't receive any mail like this simply because I opt out of receiving it and don't enter any competitions.

Remember that, at the end of the day, your mum's getting this because she's choosing to enter these draws. That's not RM's fault - that's her choice.

If I may be so impertinent I think you're directing your frustrations at RM simply because you're impotent and you can't get through to your mum. But this is misguided; the only way this will improve is if your mum wants it to.

supermum1958

I think I would like it made illegal to accept contracts to put into envelopes mail telling people they have a cheque waiting, or have won a prize, or are being entered into a draw, when that cheque, or that prize, or that draw, does not exist. That is what the big UK-based mail redirection companies are doing.
The other thing I would like is for action fraud to accept reports from concerned relatives, not just the victim (who often won't report the scams) - and to be empowered to shut down companies that for money accept this scam mail and redirect it in UK or Royal Mail envelopes. Please note that I mean the real scam mail, not all junk mail.....

Gothicfairy

My father had a thing for Readers Digest and when he died I cleared out his room and found hundreds and hundreds of offers and deal letters, he had bought books and items that he would never have really wanted on the promise of the prize draw and I could see that over the years he had spent a small fortune on their offers.
This from a so called legit company so it is not just the scam things that causes these kinds of problems.
I begged RD to stop more then once but the letters continued long after his death.

Problem is, I am not sure that much could be done as they are not forcing people to spend the money and who would we give the "right" to censor our mail too ?

lincroft1710

supermum1958 wrote: »

I think I would like it made illegal to accept contracts to put into envelopes mail telling people they have a cheque waiting, or have won a prize, or are being entered into a draw, when that cheque, or that prize, or that draw, does not exist. That is what the big UK-based mail redirection companies are doing.

Any scamming company will easily find a way round that so that they comply with the rules at absolute minimal cost to themselves.

The other thing I would like is for action fraud to accept reports from concerned relatives, not just the victim (who often won't report the scams) - and to be empowered to shut down companies that for money accept this scam mail and redirect it in UK or Royal Mail envelopes. Please note that I mean the real scam mail, not all junk mail.....

Even if all this was to happen, the scammers would just start up a new company

If any of the above needs new or an amendment to existing legislation you need to start lobbying your MP. These things don't happen overnight and as I've outlined above, it's doubtful that they would solve problem.

ashleypride

Gothicfairy wrote: »

My father had a thing for Readers Digest and when he died I cleared out his room and found hundreds and hundreds of offers and deal letters, he had bought books and items that he would never have really wanted on the promise of the prize draw and I could see that over the years he had spent a small fortune on their offers.
This from a so called legit company so it is not just the scam things that causes these kinds of problems.
I begged RD to stop more then once but the letters continued long after his death.

As I understood it, Reader Digest is at the heart of the problem with it's dubious selling methods and selling of mailing lists to scam companies.
Much more culpable than RM anyway.

Raine_E_Day

My 82 year old mother started off with Readers Digest - still subscribes and pays a colossal amount per month for books she never reads and dvds (she has no dvd player). But it's the prize draws that keep her going. Over past few years the amount of junk she receives has really escalated. A lot of this now comes from abroad.

It's just so sad to see an intelligent woman be so taken in by all this rubbish. She really believes this mail is written especially to her personally (does not accept that anything is by computer) and is convinced she is winning large amounts, yet in past 7 years all she has is a house full of absolute tat sent as 'prizes'. It is even stored in shed, there is so much (she's forgotten it's there). I cleared out 68 bottles of vitamins (in French), and a similar number tubes of French super glue last week. She told me about half an hour ago that 'they' (no idea who they are) are sending her a gold necklace worth £5000 instead of £10000 cash because of current economic climate. I told her it wouldn't be gold and we ended up arguing - again! She won't stop entering these competitions, as she calls them. She won't allow me to have anything to do with her finances and all I can do is offer to post her mail which is always on coffee table waiting for someone to take it as she can't get out. She usually gives it direct to postman who kindly? posts it for her. If I get to it first I open some of it (if glaringly obviously dodgy) and bin it. I've torn up cheques, but she's never realised. The latest was for two 36 piece dinner services (she doesn't have a table) She doesn't want or need them and the only reason she is sending it is because of the prize she might get. Again, I tore up the cheque. I have got her a subscription to a proper competition magazine but it hasn't stopped her doing the scams.

I have ranted, argued and tried to persuade her to stop, but it just creates bad feeling. I know it's her money and she can do what she likes with it, but I don't want these scammers to benefit at her expense. Most of the letters she shows me with her winnings are sent from abroad - no heading, no address, no phone number. However, we have discussed this within the family and realise there is nothing we can do because she will not accept any advice from anyone and is happy with how things are.

I wish there was some way to prevent this mail getting to her - but there isn't and if there was, she'd probably just switch to using the phone to enter everything and anything, because she is addicted.

k66yla

I'm a postie and I despair at the amount of scam letters we have to deliver. Unfortunately there is nothing we can do about it, sackable offence and prosecution if any mail is found to of been wilfully delayed by any RM employee. Also there is the official secrets act that employees have to sign so no information about peoples mail can be disclosed.
Google Spring Global
Also try registering with PPS - Postal Preference Service
and TPS - Telephone Preference Service

OneYorkshireLass

My grandad got sucked in by the RD scam too, paying thousands for books, DVDs and other junk that he's never used nor read (he doesn't have a DVD player either) - just because he thought he was going to win X amount of pounds.

Luckily, after we realised what was going on, my dad managed to stop the RD from sending anything more and got some of the most recent cheques cancelled before they were cashed. He sent strongly worded letters about how my grandad wasn't very lucid and didn't know what he was doing, and threatening legal action if they didn't stop sending junk mail.

It took a while, but they did eventually listen.