YWF Rant 26 04 07 postal scams
Today’s YWF rant is about postal or ’snail mail’ prize notification / lottery scams here in England (I’ve even started getting some from USA). Why? Because they cost me£40. So ok, I know, ‘if it sounds too good to be true it probably is’ but some people have sent off checks totaling £thousands and are now seriously in debt. I wanted to go after the bad guy scammers so I sent off 3 little checks to see where they got cashed. Ran into a problem with that though, because I wrote the checks (meaning the checks were not stolen), the bank that all 3 checks were cashed through, Barclays, could’nt do anything & advised me to go to the police, which I did 2 days ago.
In the 2 months since I sent off the checks I kept every scam prize notification that came through the letter box. All of them, 30 - 35, had one thing in common. They all had the same reference number on. Many look different, but about 85% of them had the same 7 return adresses, but with a differing ‘unit #’ (a bit like a PO Box I think). When I took everything to the police I made a point of telling them this. Today I got a call back from them. It wasn’t good news. 2 other police forces were aware of complaints about some of the addresses but I got told the chance of catching them was slim. What ‘bull’. How about some good old fashioned police work in the form of surveilance to see who’s picking up the checks? How about the classic ‘follow the money’ quote & find out where the checks are being cashed & make the banks aware? I guess it’s like anything in life - nothing happens until enough people complain! In the mean time I’ll start scanning every scam letter that comes through the door as well as the return envelope and start posting them in my photo gallery. This way I’ll build up a list of addresses to avoid for you.
I wish I’d thought of scanning all the letters before I handed them to the police! For now heres 2 of the addresses to avoid:
SWS Premiums, Box 558, 78 Marylebone High Street, London, W1U 5AP.
SPP Contest Administrators, PO Box 424 -UK, Huddersfield, HD1 3XU.
I’ll add more addresses as they come in! (and they will….) For scans of the letters please visit my photo gallery.
(update added 8th May 2007 AM)
Last Thursday I was suprised when Thames Valley Police called me back. They confirmed again that other Police forces are aware of a problem with certain addresses in regards to postal scams. It seems their hands are tied. As yet they don’t have the power to act on these scammers and asked me to contact my local Trading Standards Board and write them a letter of complaint, including my T.V. Police case #, which I will do today. If you are a victim of these postal scams you can visit National Trading Standards Board to find your local Trading Standards Board via your post code. PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO COMPLAIN! The authorities cannot act until enough people have complained about postal scams. Thames Valley Police told me the Trading Standards Board have extra powers which will enable the Police to start action against the postal scammers.
(Update added 8th May 2007 PM)
Heres a link to a scan of the letter I sent to the Trading Standards Board, delivered by hand. See scan.
(Update added 20th May 2007)
Some tips on avoiding the scams.
1/ If you got to pay a processing fee it’s a scam! Any genuine competition does not charge you for your winners check.
2/Don’t trust any competition / company that does’nt have a website. These days any genuine competition will have a website.
3/ If you don’t remember entering a competition, you probably did’nt! Another sign of a scam.
