Why do I feel so guilty about alerting my In-Law's to a Scammer!!

fd1972uk

And no, I don't mean what you think!!! :rotfl:

I ventured upto my MIL yesterday to be greeted with happy faces.

Turns out the MIL received a letter from a 'European Postcode Lottery' based in Sweden who advised she had won £700,000 or thereabouts.

When they showed me the letter I immediately just said it was a scam, and as soon as I saw it the disappointment on their faces made me feel so guilty. I wasn't actually aware that they could ALL be fooled, but seems they were.

They actually had the money spent, LOL (it's not really funny funny).

The wife had told her mum not to build her hopes up, and I confirmed this with a shattering blow.

Her Mum did say she was in some hospice lottery that she 'thinks' might be the link, but I asked her to get me the numbers and she says she would have to find them. I dont' believe we'll see it or is even the same thing anyway.

Really feel so guilty, but I guess you sometimes just need to slap some people with the cold reality.

They did say they would call the number, I said they should bin it or not phone it, but even the Son says his Mum could use the phone in case there are any high charges (Which I warned against) but I advised that they'll be asked for bank details, or asked to send money i.e. insurance, courier or something.

I'm hopeful that they'll heed my work, but I did warn them what to expect.

It annoys me so much, that people out there can do such things, the family is not financially secure, had it's troubles and the MIL who is in her late 60s lost her Man a number of years ago on her Birthday of all days (Xmas Eve), so it's pretty heart-breaking for me to have wrenched the obvious thoughts she had to do with the money.

Hell is going to be a busy place!!! :mad:


FD

couponqueen123

why didnt yr wife take the letter?

do u have the number of the company report them

fd1972uk

What do you mean my wife take the letter?

I guess you can try and report it in some way, but I don't believe there will be much hope of exposing anyone. Although there was no way that I was getting the letter, LOL, but I guess it'll be easy to obtain a copy and send to some sort of scam activity centre or such.

I'm pretty sure though that I read that it's near on impossible to track these people down.


FD

Arthien

Just googled 'European Postcode Lottery' and the following was the first link showing:

http://www.southwales-eveningpost.co.uk/Police-warn-European-lottery-scam/story-19534373-detail/story.html

Maybe your MIL might listen to reason if it's been reported as a scam in the news and warned about by the Police?

hazyjo

Was gonna say all it would have taken was a quick google. Must be thousands of reports of similar things (same wording) on the net.

Yes, people really are that gullible. I try not to lose my temper with a friend (over 50!) sometimes who comes out with the most RIDICULOUS things that are so obviously scams. I do worry about things she's done that I don't know about. She even signed up for some horoscope thing, and some fortune teller that arrived in her spam folder (and I was getting in mine even). Thought it was 'fate' that something had turned up at a time she was having problems (she's always having problems).

Sorry to hear they were scammed. Maybe I'm just very cynical - but would check EVERYTHING thoroughly before assuming I'd won something.

Jx

z.n

Just wanted to say FinL got these all the time- his tend to come from Spain and Portugal though. After about the 15th one he now easily accepts that they are scams-but the first few were really hard for him to dismiss as to him they looked very official. We did what an earlier poster suggested and showed him articles from newspapers-it took some convincing as he had also mentally spent the money and at times it was almost as if he felt we were stealing it from him by saying throw it in the bin. He too was swayed by past participation in lotteries (literally years before.)

The special offer leaflets, prize draws (if you buy £x of goods) and magical health pills and miraculous (expensive) remedies also started through the door at the same time- these too can be tricky. Your MinL might become a target- if so then you can stop unwanted mail via the post office mail preference service, calls via the TPS and also (if needed, which it was in our case) get a phone filtering device to stop the international 'your pc is infected with a virus'/'pay us £50 to stop nuisance calls'/'we are doing a survey on behalf of your bank' type calls. Give any time or response to any of these and they go into overdrive. We opted for a truecall as FinL was getting 11-12 cold sales or scam calls a day- problem sorted.

fd1972uk

Yeah as said, it does seem that your [EMAIL="'@!!$^%"$'"]'@!!$^%"$'[/EMAIL] on their parade and it did feel like they thought I was dashing their hopes so quickly.

I did throw up some examples on my phone, just hoping she/they listen to sense as I'm at work and ain't gonna hold someones hand.


FD