Please Mr Postman, not yet another letter from Brunei

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.northumberlandgazette.co.uk/ ... -1-7431284" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

For the last seven months, pensioner Eddie Fender has been receiving correspondence from all over the world.

The 82-year-old from Longhoughton gets post from Brunei, the Philippines, Australia and all over Europe, averaging a dozen letters a week.

On Monday alone, eight letters, from Holland, France and Glasgow, dropped through his letterbox.


But he has not suddenly become an international celebrity or a prolific penpal.

In fact, the letters are now becoming a nuisance and Eddie is sick of them.

They mostly offer him the chance to win cash, anything from £30,000 to £100,000, as long as he coughs up a deposit or sends a donation.

He has no idea why he has been targeted. He knows they are spam but he just wants them to stop.

“They usually contain an addressed envelope to send back some money, which I have never done, only the ones from Australia ever contain pre-paid envelopes,” said Eddie, who spent his career as a clerk of works at local authorities, including Alnwick District Council, Castle Morpeth Borough Council and several in the south of England.


It all started out of the blue. Eddie, who lost his wife three years ago, said he did nothing to solicit the correspondence and cannot pinpoint anything that might have sparked the avalanche – he didn’t enter any competitions nor reply to any begging letters. He has a computer but doesn’t know how it works.

“I’m getting sick of it. I have no idea why it started. I could just sling them in the bin, but it is always on my mind,” said Eddie. “There is no sign of it slowing down.”

He does admit to being mischievous and sending back the odd one to the wrong address – he has posted a letter from France in an Australian envelope or returned them without a stamp.

“It must be costing them a fortune to send all this out. I can’t be the only one. Who else in the community is receiving them?” he said. “All I want now is for an end to it. “


Can anyone help Eddie stop these nuisance letters?

[DB1100]

I cannot understand why people get so worked up and stressed with these letters,just put em in the bin,it's not hard ffs.

[bustedflush]

I cannot understand why people get so worked up and stressed with these letters,just put em in the bin,it's not hard ffs.

Because it's intrusive and a form of harassment. I've often heard the term 'harassment by post' used in regard to continual VM 'occupier' addressed mail too. Hence the article referred to on here from the Guardian.

I noticed recently a flat in an old people's home has started getting 4-10 of these scam letters a day. Worryingly the same address has started getting packets of pills (presumably vitamins) as featured on Watchdog - the person targeted is often unaware they will have signed up to a direct debit/card debit to get these overpriced useless items on a monthly basis.

I haven't seen the warden/manager recently but when I do I will tell her I am concerned about this woman. In the meantime a black marker is being utilized to write 'SCAM' on the letters. If it wasn't an offence I'd refuse to deliver them in the first place.

[yellowbelly]

Apparently you can report to the Internal Security Team according to this:

http://www.royalmailgroup.com/media/pre ... -scam-mail" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

As a newbie I'm not sure if my DO has a local Security Team or if they're centralised somewhere.

YB