Vale of Glamorgan Council trading standards is backing a poster campaign raising awareness of the scourge of scam letters tricking victims into sending millions of pounds to fraudsters.
The hard-hitting ‘Scam Mail is Blackmail’ posters, produced as part of the ‘Think Jessica’ campaign, are on 1,000 billboards across the country courtesy of Titan Outdoor. They warn of criminals who are brainwashing people in the UK into sending them some £3.5 billion a year.
The campaign was launched by Marilyn Baldwin whose mother Jessica fell victim to postal criminals – she received more than 30 scam letters a day, sending out most of her pension every week to criminals. Jessica died in October, 2007, and Marilyn is certain that the torment from the scam mail, by this time filling parts of her house, was partly to blame.
Marilyn says Jessica became distrustful of her own family, while remaining convinced she would soon win a large sum of money. When her money started running out, she became anxious and her health deteriorated.
According to research by the Office of Fair Trading, £350 million is lost by UK consumers every year to prize draw, foreign lottery and clairvoyant scams alone.
The posters include a new free advice line 0800 848 88 55, sponsored by British Gas, with a message by money saving expert Martin Lewis.
Mr Lewis said:”It is time we yelled the message out that people asking for money for dodgy contests or goods that the consumer never asked for in the first place are nasty criminals that should be avoided.”
Scams expert Paul Wilson is also behind the initiative. He said: “The scale of this scam and the way it can completely take over the lives of often the most vulnerable, isolating them even further, is really worrying. There isn’t enough awareness about scam mail and sucker lists, which really are incredibly sinister.”
These scams take a number of forms but the most typical involve clairvoyants asking for money to keep loved ones safe or promises of a lottery win or a big cash prize for a ‘small fee.’
Replying to just one of these letters will result in the victim being placed on a ‘suckers list’ which, in turn, will see scam post rapidly multiply to dozens of letters per day.
Earlier this year, The Serious Organised Crime Agency intercepted, in one day, £500,000 cash in letters sent by 22,000 UK residents to a single scam.
Marilyn said: “Without the raid we would have never known about these 22,000 people who were probably also sending money to countless other scams. Most victims don’t tell anyone they are responding to these letters. Most people who contact me for more information are family members, not the victims themselves.
“It is the silent victims we have to worry about – the statistics about the people who do come forward are only a tip of the iceberg.”
Graeme Preston, Trading Standards Institute’s scams lead officer, said: “These crimes are especially reprehensible in that the scammers befriend the person by letter and telephone, often over a long time. Trading Standards has a vital role in working with partner agencies towards tackling those responsible for these crimes.”
