Woman accrues thousands in debt because of scam

An elderly woman has ended up in debt to the tune of tens of thousands of pounds after falling victim to scam letters over a period of ten years. The letters, which are often sent to vulnerable consumers and targeted at those that have responded to scam mail in the past, related to things such as prize draws and lottery winnings from abroad, all asking the woman to send money for administrative costs so that the prize could be released.

The matter only came to light when the woman struggled to the point where her bank had to contact her. She then admitted to her son that she had been responding to these letters, and that she had accrued debts of around £30,000 in the form of finance such as credit cards. However, the debt had become too much for her to deal with.

Her son has stated that in some periods his mother was receiving around 30 letters a day, and over a period of ten years this had mounted up. He said: "There was no indication as to how much debt she had got herself into. All she knew was that she was getting letters from the bank and she finally came to me and said: ‘Can you help me out. I went sorting through the house and found carrier bags full of these sorts of letters."
The woman will now have to sell her £160,000 home to repay the debt and will be moving into sheltered accommodation.