Scam mail.

[patpat856]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... riage.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[TrueBlueTerrier]

'I thought they were my friends... but they ripped me off': Pensioner scammed for 56 YEARS in letter con that cost her £200,000 and her marriage

Sylvia Kneller, 76, began receiving letters from fraudsters when she was 20
She sent conmen small amounts of money in order to claim a payout
But the pensioner has never received any of the promised winnings
Council stepped in to stop the scam after officials discovered her plight

An elderly woman has revealed that she has handed over £200,000 to fraudsters after half a century of being targeted with letters claiming that she had won a fortune.

Sylvia Kneller, 76, became addicted to answering the scam letters, which demanded that she pay a small amount of money in order to receive the thousands of pounds she was supposedly owed.

Among the frauds she was caught up in were claims that she had won the lottery and a letter from a so-called psychic offering to pass on her powers to Mrs Kneller.

The pensioner says that her inability to ignore the fraudulent messages led to the break-up of her marriage and caused her to have a nervous breakdown.

Last year local officials were forced to step in and protect Mrs Kneller, saying that she had been exploited worse than anyone else they had ever encountered.

The retired cleaner from Farnham in Surrey first started receiving begging letters from fraudsters at the age of 20, and was soon sucked in to a series of scams.

Typically, they would tell her that she was eligible for a prize worth thousands of pounds, but first had to hand over a smaller sum such as £20 or £100 as a 'transaction fee'.

Some of the letters have been still more outlandish - one recent example claimed to come from a clairvoyant named 'Madame Soleil' and told Mrs Kneller she could inherit the psychic's mystical abilities.

The victim said she was unable to stop responding to the letters even though they were obviously hoaxes, adding that the fraudsters sent her so many messages that she believed they had a personal relationship.

'The scammers used to write me personal letters, I'd look forward to getting them,' she told The Sun's Rhodri Phillips. 'I thought they were my friends - but they were out to rip me off.'

Mrs Kneller added: 'All the mail that I have been getting I realised was spam mail, spam letters - but it does get you all excited and they shouldn't do that to old people, it's not right.

'I can honestly say I've never had one penny over all these years. But in your mind, if you're a believer, you believe it and that's it - it becomes like an addiction.'

She said that she had suffered a number of medical issues - including a nervous breakdown - as a result of the letters, and her obsession with the bogus payouts destroyed her relationship with her first husband.

The pensioner was one of 80 people identified by Surrey County Council as being particularly vulnerable to scammers, leading trading standards officials to intervene.

Mrs Kneller now knows to ignore the begging letters, but still receives dozens of messages a week because fraudsters regard her as a promising target.

Steve Playle of Surrey Council said: 'This is the worst case we have come across, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were worst out there that we haven't come across yet.

'We want to encourage people to speak to their elderly neighbours and friends and if they are receiving these types of mail, to make sure they are not responding to them and to point out they are not going to get any money, they are just lining the pockets of fraudsters.'

Mr Playle added: 'Sometimes people are quite lonely, it's their only contact with the outside world, they do feel addicted and I know people find it hard to understand.

'Sylvia is one of those people and it's quite brave of her to come forward and be highlighted as a victim to warn others.'

Action Fraud, a Government body which aims to help the victims of scams, warned Britons to beware of any messages asking them to hand over money in exchange for an unexpected reward.

[fishtank]

I had one elderly customer who started receiving this kind of scam mail, At one point she was receiving so much on a daily basis that a line manager actually accused me of not delivering her mail because he didn't believe that it was only one day's mail.

After several pointless attempts to get management to do something about it I went directly to her son who lived a couple of streets away and we both went and spoke to his mother.
She was in tears and it turned out she had spent about £5,000 on these scammers so what we did was set up a redirection to the son's address and he went through the scam mail and returned the whole lot to sender.

It took about 6 months for it to dry up completely but she doesn't get any scam mail anymore.

[bustedflush]

I had one elderly customer who started receiving this kind of scam mail, At one point she was receiving so much on a daily basis that a line manager actually accused me of not delivering her mail because he didn't believe that it was only one day's mail.

After several pointless attempts to get management to do something about it I went directly to her son who lived a couple of streets away and we both went and spoke to his mother.
She was in tears and it turned out she had spent about £5,000 on these scammers so what we did was set up a redirection to the son's address and he went through the scam mail and returned the whole lot to sender.

It took about 6 months for it to dry up completely but she doesn't get any scam mail anymore.

Well done mate, it's good to know people like yourself are helping stop this, kudos.

I have encountered in my time as a reserve 2 addresses bombarded with this sh!te. One addy I had a packet for, hopefully unrelated, and there was a frail guy about 80 answered the door. I gave him his packet and told him that these letters were scams and he said he knew and wondered why he kept getting them - I explained once you answer just ONE you go on a 'mugs list' and scammers pass the info on to each other. He assured me he threw them away. so I left it at that. The amount doesn't seem to increase as weeks go by, so I assume he's telling the truth otherwise I'd taking it in sacks by now.

[Hitcher]

That's like £70 a week for 55 years - how'd she even afford it?