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Con men keep 'suckers list' of 200,000 likely victims

Almost 200,000 people appear on 13 different "suckers lists" that have been seized by fraud investigators as the sophistication of mail fraud operations is laid bare for the first time

Letterbox with Mail, letters, post, Royal Mail, bills
Letterbox with Mail, letters, post, Royal Mail, bills Credit: Photo: ALAMY

Almost 200,000 people appear on 13 different "suckers lists" that have been seized by fraud investigators after they had been used by scam artists to bombard the elderly with junk mail.

Trading Standards said those listed were being sent mailshots inviting them to take part in fake prize draws, competitions and special offers.

Most of the victims were of advanced years, with an average age of 74, and many were vulnerable and lived alone.

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Typically, those identified had responded to marketing mailings before, the organisation said, and may have found the scams difficult to spot.

So far 10,843 people on the database are known to have handed over money on false premises. On average they have lost £1,184 each, and nearly £13 million in total. Some were sending money to cover the costs of claiming a prize for a competition they had not entered.

Innocent people are talked into making the bank transfers by highly-convincing scammers

The elderly are particularly vulnerable to the ruses

Trading Standards said the suckers lists were found during raids on companies that were suspected of breaking the law. They are believed to have been created from larger sets of data obtained by fraudsters from legitimate marketing companies.

Typically, the criminals contact every person on the database via speculative letters. Anyone who responds is placed on a narrower "suckers" list, which can then be sold an other fraudulent organisations.

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The 13 suckers lists were discovered by the National Trading Standards Scams Team, which was set up in 2012 to help "silent victims", particularly those vulnerable to postal fraud.

Postbox

Lord Toby Harris, chairman of the organisation, said in three years the team had saved vulnerable people £2.7million by seizing cheques and cash in raids. A further £2.3million of fraud has been stopped before victims had

parted with their money.

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"We know our work is not done. Criminal scammers are targeting some of the most vulnerable people in society, ripping them off in many cases for thousands of pounds," Lord Harris said.

"We are going to continue in our fight to protect consumers and we urge public to help us by reporting suspected cases of postal fraud to the Royal Mail."