A woman who lost thousands of pounds to scam mailers has spoken of her plight to warn others against falling foul of begging letters and bogus competitions.
The 60-year-old was paying nearly £1,000 a month by direct debit to several companies and charities after being tempted by miracle products, clairvoyants, appeals and promises of huge cash prizes.
She was also buying around £80 worth of stamps a month to respond to the piles of letters dropping onto her doormat every day requesting personal information, bank details and selling over-priced goods.
The spiral of abuse was only brought to an end when vigilant postal staff raised the alarm through an initiative launched by Fife Trading Standards.
With the help of her bank and various agencies, payments have now stopped and she is receiving support to break what she described as a “bad habit”.
She said: “I thought, one day I will get one of these cheques and it will pay for my hard work and all those stamps. I’m so grateful that someone spotted how much mail I was getting.”
She was among 26 scam mail victims identified through the partnership between Royal Mail and Fife Trading Standards.
As a result of their success, Royal Mail delivery office staff in Glenrothes and Kirkcaldy were presented with a hero award by the Trading Standards Institute.
The initiative, which has now been rolled out nationwide, encourages postal workers to report suspect mail so information can be passed to Trading Standards, police and other organisations.
Fife Trading Standards service manager Geoff Bates said: “Royal Mail enables us to identify people who are socially isolated and who we would never have known about otherwise.
“Scam mail is mail which is unsolicited and not from a recognised charity. People fill out surveys and prize draw leaflets and are quite often giving personal details.
“Their information is then passed from one company to another.”
He said cases such as that of the Glenrothes woman are becoming more common as people face financial hardship.
He said: “The irony is that they want that money from the prize draw scams to help get a better future and pay bills and what they don’t realise is that they are getting scammed. It becomes an addiction and they are compelled to answer these letters.”
Trading Standards Institute chairman Mark McGinty said the initiative “prevents those most at risk of falling victim from receiving scam mail in the first place, stopping a downward spiral which could lead to financial, mental and even physical harm”.