A woman of 80 from Bridgend in South Wales is £16,000 ($32,000) worse off after falling for an email scam. It claimed she was the sole surviving relative of an aircrash involving a Concorde in 2000 near Monchengladbach, Germany. The only problem was that a Concorde crashed near Paris.
After the lady fell for the scammers, she had to fork out the 16,000 pounds in order to get her share of an £30 million inheritance. When the scammers told her they needed another £10,000, the lady said she did not have that, so they told her to remortgage the house. It was then her daughter who alerted police.
The police advised anyone receiving a scam email to contact Crimestoppers. I think Crimestoppers would be swamped if we all did that. For reference of readers in the US: people in the UK can anonymously report crime on a freephone telephone number.
If it looks too good to be true - it usually is.
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I actually know a college educated 50 year old male person who fell for a scam like this here in Washington. I couldn't believe it ! An 80 year old person, well maybe they might be a little naive...but not somebody this guys age?? Of course he's always looking for a get rich quick scheme. Thankfully, most of those emails are now going into my Spam box, so I don't even see them anymore. We've been warned over and over again on various news type TV programs about these scams and yet people still get pulled in...hook, line and sinker. Linda
ReplyDeleteIt is always unbelievable to me why someone would send money to these things, of course we had a lot of trouble with Mother doing it when brain damage set in. She once sent off a $9,000 in the mail so she could win a $150,000 car, but happened to mention it to the guy at the post office who called my sister, retaining the letter. when we took her finances over and she had no access to her account, she sent George Bush her Chevron credit card and told him to use it all he wanted to. My sister happened to apprehend that by mailing her letters! We did get quite the laugh at the thought of what George Bush would have done with such a generous gift! Gerry
ReplyDeleteI get so angry when I hear stories like this. Elderly people are often victims of these type of scams here in the US. Poor woman.
ReplyDeleteLisa
It's a shame that she fell for this.
ReplyDeleteLori
It makes me so mad when the elderly especially are targeted. You can anonymously report a crime here in US too but not everyone reports. It's a society where people will sue you for looking at them the wrong way. I am so sorry this lady lost so much to these heartless people. Glad the daughter was paying attention.
ReplyDeleteNelishia
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