22/10/09 Scam Mail

This is a message from Northamptonshire West Police on behalf of Trading Standards to all NHW.

Northamptonshire Trading Standards have advised us of a website called Think Jessica which relays the shocking facts behind Scam Mail involving elderly generation.

Criminals are accessing the homes, minds and bank accounts of millions of elderly people.

Scam Mail is NOT Junk Mail, registering with the Mail Preference Service, will not reduce or stop it from being delivered.

• Criminals worldwide are sending millions of scam letters into the UK.


• Scammers can have mail disguised with the Royal Mail printed stamp, to give it the impression it has originated from the UK.


• They hunt and prey on our most vulnerable.


• Scam mail tricks, befriends, threatens and often swears the victim to secrecy.


• After replying to the first "tempter" letter victims names are put on a lists which is sold to other criminals all over the world.


• A chronic scam victim is someone repeatedly taken in by scams. This may be because they are over trusting, socially isolated, or suffer from a mental incapacity such as confusion, memory loss or dementia.


• To receive over 100 letters a day is not unusual for a chronic victim


• It has been know that some victims will empty bank accounts and sell their homes to keep up with the scammer's demands.


• Victims can be harassed and threatened by phone calls.

For more information please visit the Think Jessica web site on http://www.thinkjessica.com

For further help and advice contact www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/northants or telephone them on 01604 707900