Post by maxwellsteer on Jan 8, 2007 9:02:31 GMT
Hi. Im new to this forum.
> My mother was addicted to scammery, & probably gave away £40-50k in the preceding 6 years. She was certainly shelling out around £800 a month when I & my siblings decided that the situation was intolerable. There was no surface in her house on which anything could be put down. All were covered with foot-high piles of 'scamvelopes'. We could also see that she was seriously deprest by the situation, tho it was part of her 'addiction-denial' mechanism that she couldnt admit this.
> In mid 2006 we persuaded her to have her post diverted to me. As a way of making the subject less tedious I have kept a statistical record of everything she has received in the 29 weeks to date. Of 1162 items *846* have been scams. We have sedulously returned all of them. It was worst in the first 3 months when 75% of her mail was 'scamungous'. In the second 3 months that dropt to just under 50%. And now we're in the 3rd quarter, thanks to Xmas, genuine post has outnumbered scams by 2:1. Long may the trend continue.
> The outright winner in the 'profane' scam stakes is Beverly Hills Jewelry (of Orpington!) with 58 letters under some 18 pseudonyms - I databased the mailsort & customer codes. Well, it's more fun than watching East Enders.
> In the 'psychic' scam stakes, the unequivocal single-winner was Samantha, who managed to clock up 43 before mid-Sep, when mercifully she got the message. However way ahead of her is a conglomeration we think is called Black Tacos who either operate throu 12 aliases or o/wise are a mailing house selling suckers' addresses to both lottery & psychic fraudsters such as 'High Commission of International Games' & 'Mr & Mrs Marc Smiths & their children Elodie, Marty & Joanna' or the preposterously named 'Dame Antineas de Phenicie'. These entities between them have sent 83 items.
> I have made strenuous efforts to interest journalists and, where appropriate, reported traders to the TSO - but this merely results in convoluted buck passing & seems largely pointless. I have written a couple of articles, which noone has been interested in publishing, and sent a copy to my MP, who hasnt pursued the matter.
> My wife & I have retained a 'naughty box' of some of the most outrageous &/or risible material - including a 'Prof Andrew Berezine', whose supposed photo [oops, 'non-contractual likeness'] is that of GB Shaw!
> If any journalist is researching this subject & would like to avail themselves of the material I have compiled, I can be contacted @ m@msteer.co.uk
> There is some good news. After a period of several years where my mother was convinced that my negative attitude, not to say outright derision, was responsible for her not winning anything - if only I had the power! - at Christmas she actually thanked me for having lifted this burden from her. She was at last willing to accept that she had been deluded by these cunningly-crafted 'marketing communications' - and was delighted to find that her bank account was no longer mysteriously overdrawn.
> O & I should mention one other thing. [This is all a displacement activity to hinder me cleaning my office!] Several of the Swiss swizzlers had their tentacles into my mother's credit cards, and were making regular debits. Significantly, all but one used the same merchant account. I doubt that my mother HAD signed a mandate authorising regular debiting, but the Coop bank refused to act on my suggestion that they should require the debitor to produce the mandate, & insisted that they were contractually bound to pay debits unless evidence of cancelation was given. We therefore sent RD letters to all the scammers whose addresses we could find, which cost a tidy sum, & cc'd them to the Coop, who lost them interdepartmentally(!) but eventually it was sorted out & the Coop reimbursed some £200 - which was but the tip of an iceberg. It turns out that even if we had closed the card account, as we tried to, a 'valid' debit would automatically reopen it.
> All hail the Govt of W Australia's scambusters website. Why is this beyond our own Department of Timidity & Inertia?
> My mother was addicted to scammery, & probably gave away £40-50k in the preceding 6 years. She was certainly shelling out around £800 a month when I & my siblings decided that the situation was intolerable. There was no surface in her house on which anything could be put down. All were covered with foot-high piles of 'scamvelopes'. We could also see that she was seriously deprest by the situation, tho it was part of her 'addiction-denial' mechanism that she couldnt admit this.
> In mid 2006 we persuaded her to have her post diverted to me. As a way of making the subject less tedious I have kept a statistical record of everything she has received in the 29 weeks to date. Of 1162 items *846* have been scams. We have sedulously returned all of them. It was worst in the first 3 months when 75% of her mail was 'scamungous'. In the second 3 months that dropt to just under 50%. And now we're in the 3rd quarter, thanks to Xmas, genuine post has outnumbered scams by 2:1. Long may the trend continue.
> The outright winner in the 'profane' scam stakes is Beverly Hills Jewelry (of Orpington!) with 58 letters under some 18 pseudonyms - I databased the mailsort & customer codes. Well, it's more fun than watching East Enders.
> In the 'psychic' scam stakes, the unequivocal single-winner was Samantha, who managed to clock up 43 before mid-Sep, when mercifully she got the message. However way ahead of her is a conglomeration we think is called Black Tacos who either operate throu 12 aliases or o/wise are a mailing house selling suckers' addresses to both lottery & psychic fraudsters such as 'High Commission of International Games' & 'Mr & Mrs Marc Smiths & their children Elodie, Marty & Joanna' or the preposterously named 'Dame Antineas de Phenicie'. These entities between them have sent 83 items.
> I have made strenuous efforts to interest journalists and, where appropriate, reported traders to the TSO - but this merely results in convoluted buck passing & seems largely pointless. I have written a couple of articles, which noone has been interested in publishing, and sent a copy to my MP, who hasnt pursued the matter.
> My wife & I have retained a 'naughty box' of some of the most outrageous &/or risible material - including a 'Prof Andrew Berezine', whose supposed photo [oops, 'non-contractual likeness'] is that of GB Shaw!
> If any journalist is researching this subject & would like to avail themselves of the material I have compiled, I can be contacted @ m@msteer.co.uk
> There is some good news. After a period of several years where my mother was convinced that my negative attitude, not to say outright derision, was responsible for her not winning anything - if only I had the power! - at Christmas she actually thanked me for having lifted this burden from her. She was at last willing to accept that she had been deluded by these cunningly-crafted 'marketing communications' - and was delighted to find that her bank account was no longer mysteriously overdrawn.
> O & I should mention one other thing. [This is all a displacement activity to hinder me cleaning my office!] Several of the Swiss swizzlers had their tentacles into my mother's credit cards, and were making regular debits. Significantly, all but one used the same merchant account. I doubt that my mother HAD signed a mandate authorising regular debiting, but the Coop bank refused to act on my suggestion that they should require the debitor to produce the mandate, & insisted that they were contractually bound to pay debits unless evidence of cancelation was given. We therefore sent RD letters to all the scammers whose addresses we could find, which cost a tidy sum, & cc'd them to the Coop, who lost them interdepartmentally(!) but eventually it was sorted out & the Coop reimbursed some £200 - which was but the tip of an iceberg. It turns out that even if we had closed the card account, as we tried to, a 'valid' debit would automatically reopen it.
> All hail the Govt of W Australia's scambusters website. Why is this beyond our own Department of Timidity & Inertia?
