MP vows to keep pressure on over scam mail

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.burtonmail.co.uk/News/MP-vow ... 080000.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

AN MP has vowed to keep the pressure on the Government over mail scammers after it brushed off her demand to tackle their ‘evil’ trade.

Heather Wheeler (pictured), who represents South Derbyshire for the Conservatives, spoke after going head to head with Liberal Democrat business minister Jo Swinson during a parliamentary debate.

As previewed in yesterday’s Mail, Mrs Wheeler asked the minister to crack down on an industry she said cost £3.5 billion a year.

The backbencher said almost 50 per cent of the population would be targeted while almost seven per cent would fall victim.

Mrs Wheeler asked Ms Swinson to change existing legislation to allow the authorities to intercept mail they suspected was scam in order to prosecute more effectively.

The Tory, however, was unimpressed by the minister’s reply.

She said: “It was very protectionist of the Royal Mail and of their business model and frankly it was not protecting of our vulnerable constituents.”

Mrs Wheeler said she later met interested parties, including police, who had watched the Westminster Hall debate from the public gallery.

She said: “We agreed to hold a round table meeting with trading standards and other people next week in Parliament.

“We will work on a point by point reply to Ms Swinson’s speech and find the points helpful to our cause and those she completely misunderstood.

“We will put that to the Home Office and say while nobody is trying to put the Royal Mail out of business, with 50,000 scam items out of two billion there really is a way forward that protects the postal worker, Royal Mail and our constituents.”

Mrs Wheeler said it was important to act to protect the most vulnerable.

She said: “They don’t understand it’s a scam and are just beginning to get sucked into it.

“Once they are in a scam their names go around the other people. That’s what is so evil about it.”

The MP spoke a day after revealing that one of her constituents, an elderly man, lost £7,000 in a year to the scammers, who continued to bombard him with up to seven letters a week.

[postmule]

We are simply not facing how evil this scam mail racket is. It has been going on for years and I see no evidence of it changing. I still deliver loads of obvious scam mail and I hate to do it. Most of the recipients are elderly and vulnerable. These scams ruin peoples lives and drive many to suicide.
I am not exaggerating -see http://www.thinkjessica.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; -look at all of the tabs.
Also see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-34qRa49oo" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Icra25wiTIc" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.heatherwheeler.org.uk/blog/3153" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.stopjunkmail.org.uk/news/articles/110723.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Royal Mail is complicit in this swindle. They own a 25% stake in the company Spring Global Mail that distributes this scam mail; see the BBC Watchdog video. I am not talking about normal door to door, scam mail is very different to advertising mail as it intends to defraud.
Royalmailchat and the unions should be shouting from the rooftops to stop this abuse.
Do we really wish to ignore the abuse of the vulnerable for the sake of business profit and job security?

[postmule]

Interesting and disturbing that my above post only prompted one reply.
The posts on Royalmailchat are nearly always about how postmen are being adversely affected by changes in Royal Mail.
Are we interested in the general good? Do we care if vulnerable people are taken advantage of by scam mail?
The only mention of scam mail I can find on the CWU website is http://www.cwu.org/news/archive/bbc-pan ... ramme.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; .
Surely the CWU could do more? I hope that nobody believes that the weak and vulnerable should be sacrificed to maintain mail volumes and profit.

Could I appeal to all postmen to complain about scam mail on the upcoming ‘Have You Say’ survey. If loads of us did that would the company listen?

Please see Panorama programme http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012gn9m" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The company mentioned in the programme that Spring Global Mail handles most of the scam mail that we deliver. They put the ‘Delivered by Royal Mail’ logo on the top which implies that RM have approved this mail. Do companies have to get the permission of RM to use this logo?
RM have a 33% stake in Spring Global.
Also see -
http://www.thinkjessica.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; also look at the links
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2006/se ... supplement" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-34qRa49oo" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

MP Heather Wheeler proposed a bill in Parliament http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Playe ... ngId=12331" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (quite impressive for a tory MP)
but that it ran out of time http://www.stopjunkmail.org.uk/news/articles/130131.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


What I cannot understand is why it is not illegal to post this crap.
I know that postmen and Royal Mail are constrained by the Data Protection Act 1998, the Postal Services Act 2000 and the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 but what if we were also constrained by another law that was diametrically opposed to these laws so that it was impossible not to break a law.
If you look at the Fraud Act 2006 http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/d_to_g/fraud_act/#a20" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ‘Possession of articles for use in fraud’ (Section 6) then it states -
"In our view, to establish an offence under Section 25 (1) the prosecution must prove that the Defendant was in possession of the article, and intended the article to be used in the course of or in connection with some future burglary, theft or cheat. But it is not necessary to prove that he intended it to be used in the course of or in connection with any specific burglary, theft or cheat; it is enough to prove a general intention to use it for some burglary, theft or cheat; we think that this view is supported by the use of the word "any" in Section 25 (1). Nor, in our view, is it necessary to provide that the defendant intended to use it himself; it will be enough to prove that he had it with him with the intention that it should be used by someone else."
If Royal Mail or postmen knowingly post scam mail then surely we have broken this law.
At the the same time if we do not post addressed mail we have also broken the law. Bit of a dilemma.

[postmule]

Just found an interesting announcement on Spring global Mail website -
http://www.springglobalmail.com/en/News_Spring_PostNL/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Spring Global are the company that distribute the scam mail; RM have a 33% stake in them.
It seems that PostNL are buying RM's stake.
I wonder if RM have been shamed into this? The publicity has been awful.
Can I make a suggestion? Will RM donate the revenue from selling their share to the victims of scam mail?
Maybe Marilyn Baldwin of http://www.thinkjessica.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; or MP Heather Wheeler http://www.heatherwheeler.org.uk/blog/3147" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; can suggest how the donation from RM can be best spent.
Over to you Moya Greene

[fishtank]

Interesting and disturbing that my above post only prompted one reply..

It's nothing personal,it's just that we've been here before.

http://www.royalmailchat.co.uk/communit ... al#p402753" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.royalmailchat.co.uk/communit ... al#p402183" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.royalmailchat.co.uk/communit ... al#p351772" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.royalmailchat.co.uk/communit ... al#p351943" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.royalmailchat.co.uk/communit ... ca#p491487" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And loads of others...