Refunds for scam victims
The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) says it hopes to be able to return cheques to victims after breaking a lottery scam in Somerset.
The lottery fraud was a variant of the advanced fee fraud where potential victims were contacted (in this case by telephone) telling them they had won a major prize in a lottery, and to claim their winnings they would need to send a cheque for £20 to pay for administrative expenses. Of course, there was no such lottery, and no-one ever received their winnings, but up to 22,000 cheques have been recovered by the police. SOCA says it intends to return the cheques to the owners, along with a note warning them not to be so trusting in future.
The thing that amazes me most about this story is that so many people fell victim to it. I receive scams like this day after day in my email, telling me I've won the lottery that I've never entered, or telling me that my email address was picked by Peugot in its latest marketing campaign and I've won a car, that a solicitor in Lagos wants to put 25 million pounds into my bank account, and even emails telling me that because I've been mailed such scams in the past that I am entitled to compensation from the Internet Compensation Board. Surely there is no-one left on the planet who hasn't heard of these scams.
If you have elderly relatives who grew up in a more trusting age, who are potentially vulnerable to these fraudsters, please take the time to make sure they know about these scams. Don't let them become another fraud statistic.
24th April 2009