You’re a winner

Mail scams target vulnerable seniors

Doug Alyea was a trusting sort. He was from a generation that considered other people honest until given a reason to think otherwise.

So when the letter arrived from Reader’s Digest, or Publishers Clearing House (the details are lost now), announcing that Doug had won a few thousand dollars in a sweepstakes he couldn’t remember entering—he believed it to be genuine. He didn’t need or want the money—but thought he would give it to his grandchildren.

There was one thing he had to do first. According to the official letter—embossed with a logo and prize number—Doug first had to forward a $15 administrative fee.

The prize never came—but the mail sure did. Soon every day the mailbox was stuffed with two or three notices from around the world announcing he had won a cash prize. From Zurich, Kansas City and Taiwan. They bore urgent messages. Stern advice to responding quickly. Colourful, official-looking envelopes.

By the time he became convinced he had been taken by this con game—that no prize was ever forthcoming—he had shelled out a few hundred dollars in “administrative fees,” according to his son Vic Alyea.

Doug Alyea passed away in February. Yet he still gets two or three letters a week announcing he is a winner of this prize or that— urging him to make arrangements to collect his money. This despite the fact that he and now his son have been returning every piece of this kind of mail for nearly a year.

Vic is telling his dad’s story now as a cautionary tale to others who may be vulnerable to such schemes.

“These people are preying upon seniors, especially those who live alone,” said Alyea. “These are people who look forward to the mail. It is a connection to others.”

Canada Post can’t do much—the mail is legally sent and they are compelled to deliver it.

Fortunately, it costs nothing to return the mail. Just write RTS (return to sender) on the envelope and put it back in your mailbox or mail chute at the post office.

ACT NOW!
Doug Alyea was surely not the only victim of this scam; many others in this community receive letters like these every day.

On the same day Vic Alyea gave his account of his dad’s experience, Wellington resident Gord Fitzgerald brought by a letter he had received in the mail from the Central Award Distribution Prize Director. It advised Fitzgerald that he was eligible for prize worth $2 million, if he would accept it as an annuity or $1.32 million if he preferred a lump sum. Status was checked as 100 per cent verified. Fitzgerald had 14 days to respond from a time stamped on the document. All he had to do was pay $15 by cash, cheque or credit card (including his three digit card verification security code). If he preferred he could pay $20 and his offer would be processed on rush basis.

“Where did they get my name and address?” Fitzgerald wanted to know.

It is, worryingly, very easy for predator outfits to gather mailing information. Most subscriptions, whether to magazines or for online services, become a commodity to be bought and sold many times over.

Vic Alyea urges seniors and their children to be wary of unsolicited mail of any kind. These scams are widespread because they work—enough people get caught up in them and are lured to send money.

“If somebody wants to give you something for free—you’ve got to ask yourself: what’s the catch?” warns Alyea.