How to be removed from scam prize draw mailing lists ?

Usjes

Hi,

My elderly aunt is 88 years of age and half senile. I have just discovered that she has been receiving regular mailings for a couple of years now which have all the hallmarks of scam letters saying she is a lucky winner* and she has to make a purchase to confirm her desire to receive etc. So she has regularly been placing orders and sending cheques in the hope of receiving various fabulous prizes and is upset that she never receives them she just receives the various plastic worthless crap that she orders. The letters all have asterisks explaining that she is not actually the 'winner' of anything but she is too old/senile to read or understand these. As she has been sending them money regularly now for god knows how long she is certainly on their 'preferred customer' list and they will no doubt not want to stop sending here these misleading letters. So my question is, is there anything I can do to stop this? Can you force a company to stop sending correspondance to a specific address ? If so, can I do it on her behalf, or will I have to have her do it while I coach her on what to say ?

Thanks,

Usjes.

Right Turn Clyde

Is your aunt Bruce Dern by any chance?

Dangel4x4

Create a power of attorney, then have the bank cancel her chequebook or have her post redirected to you for screening?

coylemj

Your aunt is now on a 'mugs list' and there is nothing you can do about it since the list (of people stupid enough to actually respond) gets sold to other scammers and she will continue to receive similar offers for years to come.

Sorry if that's an insensitive response but it's the reality of junk mail these days. There's no point in responding to any individual letter, any one scammer may take your aunt off their list but she will still feature on the master list which other scammers will gladly pay money for.

RGDATA!

Can you identify where the mailings are coming from?
Assuming there are some clear contact details, I'd get on google, because you'll more than likely find others in the same boat somewhere.
You can and should sort this out for her.
If they are contactable I'd put together something in writing for your Aunt to sign, and have that ready to email/fax, after first getting in touch yourself.

RGDATA!

coylemj wrote: »

Your aunt is now on a 'mugs list' and there is nothing you can do about it since the list (of people stupid enough to actually respond) gets sold to other scammers and she will continue to receive similar offers for years to come.

Sorry if that's an insensitive response but it's the reality of junk mail these days. There's no point in responding to any individual letter, any one scammer may take your aunt off their list but she will still feature on the master list which other scammers will gladly pay money for.

Actually, this is probably the reality and a better answer than mine. Screen her post as best you can, with her consent obviously

Pat Mustard

OP, you say that your aunt is half senile. I'm not sure what that means, exactly. If you told me in the pub, I'd know what you meant. But what I mean is that it isn't clear from a legal perspective. It would depend on medical evidence.

If she still has mental capacity, she may be able to execute an EPA (enduring power of attorney), which would activate in the event that she loses mental capacity, due to Alzheimer's etc.

If she has lost mental capacity at this stage, you can make enquiries about an application to have her made a Ward of Court.

In either case, her assets can possibly be safeguarded from the scammers.

In the meantime, buy your aunt a good shredder OP. These people are illegal scammers. They aren't going to obey laws.

brian_t

Right Turn Clyde wrote: »

Is your aunt Bruce Dern by any chance?

I don't get your post.

Beano

brian_t wrote: »

I don't get your post.

a reference to this film Nebraska i believe.

brian_t

Beano wrote: »

a reference to this film Nebraska i believe.

Thanks. It obviously wasn't meant to link back to this thread.

Victor

Intercept the post and mark the envelopes "gone away" and put them back in the post, unopened.

Usjes

These scam letters are all from the same company, they seem to be based in the Netherlands but there is a local contact office here in Dublin and I can see my aunt herself has contacted them on a number of occasions to complain that she has not received the 'guaranteed prizes' advertised but they just reply saying that they make it 'as clear as possible' that you have not actually won anything despite their letters being specifically designed to imply exactly the opposite.

So, ignoring the specifics of my aunts mental capacity, reducing the problem to its most basic form; If I am receiving regular mail, specifically addressed to me, is there anything I can do to prevent this? Do I have the right to request I be taken off a company's mailing list ?

Victor

Usjes wrote: »

So, ignoring the specifics of my aunts mental capacity, reducing the problem to its most basic form; If I am receiving regular mail, specifically addressed to me, is there anything I can do to prevent this? Do I have the right to request I be taken off a company's mailing list ?

You can write to them demanding that you be removed from their mailing list. If they fail to do so, send a complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner.

Usjes

Victor wrote: »

You can write to them demanding that you be removed from their mailing list. If they fail to do so, send a complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner.

Thanks Victor, this seems to be the simplest option. I wonder though, if the company is registered in the Netherlands can they just ignore the directions if the Irish Data Protection Commissioner ?

Ken.

My grandmother had a similar problem a few years ago and with the help of the local postman they returned to sender with "recipient deceased" on them. After 3 goes of doing that the letters stopped.

Little CuChulainn

EDIT: Misread op

Bogger77

ken wrote: »

My grandmother had a similar problem a few years ago and with the help of the local postman they returned to sender with "recipient deceased" on them. After 3 goes of doing that the letters stopped.

this should work.

if you are local on the same route as your aunt, it might be an idea to ask him to post such letters through your letter box, accidentally.
Given her age, it might be an idea to go legal, and get someone more mentally agile in charge of her financial affairs.