"New scam on the block" spreads to Sussex

10:27am Friday 5th September 2008

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A new scam is costing people thousands of pounds and led to one couple to the brink of losing their home. Naomi Loomes reports on the ‘dead foreigners’ con which is being sent to homes across Sussex.

Trading standards officers are preparing to be contacted by dozens of people who have been victims of the “dead foreigners” scam.

The scam letters are often similar or identical in their wording and promise you a cut in the inheritance of a Briton who has died abroad.

The author claims to work for the bank in which the deceased person held an account and then offers the reader the chance to “inherit” their life savings, often millions of pounds, no questions asked.

In the case of the bogus inheritance letters circulating around Sussex, the author or authors generally claim to be from Singapore even though the scam is thought to have started in Nigeria.

Tom Cooke, from East Sussex trading standards, said: “It is the new scam on the block.

“It asks you to part with money in order to receive a payout of millions from the inheritance of a person who died without a will or next of kin.

“The letters will always urge the ‘utmost confidentiality’.

“Once you have responded it will become more elaborate, with email, phone and even personal meetings involved as the victim is persuaded to part with more and more money.

“While it can be quite elaborate, a lot of it to a sceptical eye is quite ridiculous but clearly it doesn’t need to be entirely logical to work.

“Once the victim starts parting with money then they seem to start to persuade themselves that it is true, rather perhaps than admit to themselves that they have been scammed.”

It is thought the con will also start spreading by email, as was the case with the similar “741” scams that cost Britons hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The emails promise a percentage share of a large sum of money for helping officials of a foreign government or bank or sometimes just a particularly rich foreign family out of a legal problem.

They claim a small amount of your cash will pay the bribes necessary to release the windfall.

But after the first transfer the victim will usually receive a phone call, from a non-traceable number, requesting more money.

In the case of a Hastings couple, tens of thousands of pounds were paid to conmen in Singapore and they even came close to re-mortgaging their home before their bank alerted the authorities and the pair were saved from potential bankruptcy.

In response, East Sussex trading standards has set up a “scamnesty” across the county, where anyone who receives a suspicious letter is urged to hand it in to their local library or contact the council immediately.

Trading standards officers are also warning about identity fraud in Sussex.

It is a more sophisticated and less common way of making a scam work but it happened to a family in Lewes.

If scamsters obtain someone’s name and address and basic information they then write to their victims under this identity.

Because the author appears to be local, people are more likely to hand over money, thinking a local cause is at stake.

Although there is a “new scam on the block”, the old scams that swindle Sussex residents out of thousands of pounds each year are still doing the rounds.

Two months ago Hailsham couple Jean and Anthony Trigg handed over £1,500 for a Spanish lottery “winnings” letter posted through their door.

The “Euro Lottery” letter claimed they had won 985,950 euros but they needed to pay the money to cover the clearance of the cheque.

The couple went to Gatwick and paid in cash through a Western Union bank. After that they had several long telephone conversations with what sounded like authentic Spanish lottery organisers. Days later they were told there had been a complication and they needed to send £7,500 in fees.

Mr Trigg said: “We had been having such a hard time of things that we wanted to believe this was a bit of luck that had come our way but it quickly dawned on us that it was just another scam.

“I told them that we didn’t have the money and that this was the last conversation they would have with us.

“I congratulated them on their scam and furiously told them they were very good at their job. Because we’d paid in cash, I knew that we would never see the money again.”

Experts estimate the amount of money scammed from Sussex residents in the past year ranges from £250,000 to £1 million.

Last year a Hove pensioner lost £70,000 of his life savings to a conman who told him he had won a Spanish lottery, and in March last year an 81-year-old man lost £115,000 in a similar ruse.

Brian Johnson, East Sussex trading standards manager, said: “The problem is, so few people come forward it is impossible to tell how many people have been caught out.”

Last year The Argus revealed how Vianne Eade, from Whitehawk, lost £500 when she was taken in by the promise of a Spanish lottery payout posted to her.

Diana Vinall, from Barcombe, also received the letter and handed it in to authorities as she believed it could trick elderly people into parting with their savings.

Coverage of new scams is vital, however, and 66-year-old Martin Farmer, from Hassocks, said he was on the brink of being duped by a Spanish lottery letter before he read a story about them in The Argus in November last year.

For more information on how to get involved with the “scamnesty” contact East Sussex trading standards on 01323 463420, or to find an approved trader visit www.eastsussex.gov.uk/buywithconfidence.

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