International swindlers now approaching Finns by normal snail-mail letters

Scammers resort to ordinary mail in search for credibility

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By Teppo Moisio
      International scammers are apparently back to their old tricks, though with a cute retro twist.
      At least it looks like it, judging from the fact that over the past few weeks many Finns have received lottery-scam letters from a bogus Australian firm - as traditional paper letters, delivered by old-fashioned snail mail.
     
An envelope that looks highly urgent and very convincing includes a covering letter, saying that the receiver has won a jackpot prize of an Australian lottery worth millions of US dollars.
      All he or she should do is to send their credit card details and a small fee in the enclosed pre-addressed return envelope in order that the bountiful sum of money due could be paid into their bank account.
      Sounds great.
      Entering the name of the sender company into an online search engine unfortunately reveals the disappointing truth: the letter is a scam.
     
The trick is as old as the hills. The sender of the letter is appealing to human greed and gullibility.
      The advance payment sent in the hope of receiving a large sum of money will never be recovered.
      After the first prepayment, the sender asks for another, and yet another...
      The milking for money continues until the payer’s suspicions are aroused.
      The jackpot remains a dream on the horizon.
      Similar scams have been attempted for many decades - maybe for centuries. Many people receive similar e-mail messages on a daily basis.
     
What is new - or rather a retro twist on an old ruse - is an attempted scam by using ordinary letters through the mailbox.
      ”A number of such scam letters have come to our attention and we are keeping an eye on their progress”, reports Press Officer Laura Salmi from the Finnish Consumer Agency.
      The same is reported by Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
     
Some years ago swindlers replaced ordinary letters by e-mails mainly as they wanted to reduce costs.
      At the price of only some hundreds of euros it is possible to buy a service that sends scam e-mail messages to a million addresses.
      The sending of traditional letters would cost much more - in postage stamps alone.
      In order that the scam is worthwhile, many gullible recipients have to be taken in.
     
Reverting to old tricks means that the swindlers are looking to regain lost credibility, the Finnish police and the Consumer Agency believe.
      ”People have been warned time and again of the dangers of the Internet, and they are now likely to know how to avoid e-mail scams”, Laura Salmi comments.
      Obviously the scammers are now testing the water.
      "The influx of letters has slowed down. Maybe they are now testing whether the success rate is better when letters are sent more rarely”, Salmi notes.
     
How does one recognise a scam?
      ”Basically, if something feels too good to be true, it normally is”, Salmi puts the rule of thumb into a few words.
      The fact of the matter is that if you did not buy a lottery ticket in the first place, you can hardly win a lottery, can you?
      If you are still in any doubt, in order to learn how to recognise a scam, see the link to the Finnish Consumer Agency’s website below.
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 26.9.2009


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Blessed are the receivers of scam e-mails (1.2.2005)

Links:
  National Bureau of Investigation
  Finnish Consumer Agency: Effective means are needed to protect consumers against scams

TEPPO MOISIO / Helsingin Sanomat
teppo.moisio@hs.fi