Don’t fall for scam letters, Murray Bridge resident warns
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
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As soon as Margaret Smith* pulled the letter out of her letterbox, she knew there was something funny about it.
It was addressed to her husband.
Her husband had died in 2011.
The letter inside the envelope was supposedly from a David Vales Alcampos, a Spanish lawyer, who claimed to represent a businessman in that country who had died in a car crash.
The businessman had the same surname as the letter’s recipient, and had supposedly left behind an investment portfolio worth US$35 million.
The writer of the letter offered to split the money with the recipient if she – or her late husband – could just get in touch.
Rather than being sucked in, the Murray Bridge resident who received the letter contacted Murray Bridge News, hoping to warn others to beware of such scams.
“You can see how people … might see the money and don’t see the rest of it,” she said.
Mrs Smith is not the only person to have received the same letter.
A Queensland resident posted a copy of an identical letter in a Facebook group called Scam Alerts Australia back in June.
Other users claimed to have received the same letter as long ago as the 2000s.
While scam phone calls, emails and text messages are more common these days, postal scams still pop up from time to time, according to the federal government’s Scamwatch service.
Scamwatch’s advice is to:
- Stop: Don’t give out money or personal information unless you’re sure
- Check: Ask yourself whether the message could be fake
- Protect: If a scammer gets your money or information, act quickly by contacting your bank and reporting the scam to Scamwatch
Mrs Smith’s suggestion?
“Ignore it,” she said.
“That’s what I intend on doing.
“Definitely don’t contact them, because that’s just encouragement.”
- More information: www.scamwatch.gov.au.
- Report a scam: www.scamwatch.gov.au/report-a-scam.
Note: We have changed the recipient’s name at her request.
