scammed out of £525.000

Mawthemerrier IMO some people just don’t watch or listen to the sort of news or other programmes where they’d learn about this sort of thing, nor do they read anything similar.

I’d say that was almost certainly true in the case of our ‘lottery’ scammed neighbour, who I had known for decades.

What do they watch, listen to or read? The scam stories are everywhere, from broadsheets to red tops to magazines, and crop up frequently on television and radio. There’s no excuse for not being aware unless you have lost your marbles.

Witzend Ignorance is not an acceptable excuse, unless people are cognitively impaired. It is up to all of us to make sure we are aware of what we need to know to run our lives safely.

Supposing someone explained that they weren't wearing masks and locking down during COVID because they didn't know anything about it because they didn't take any notice of the media. I doubt that the police would have let them off. They would have been fined, just like the rest of us.

There is such a thing as culpable ignorance.

I wasn’t stating it as an excuse, Monica - simply a statement of fact.

As far as I could ever see, my neighbour’s reading was restricted to Hello! magazine, and any celebrity or fashion gossip in their sole newspaper - the Saturday Mail. I doubt that she ever watched much news or factual TV programmes, and now that she’s very frail and a bit muddled I dare say that applies even more, though the TV is on non-stop.

IMO there are plenty of similar types. A dd had a friend who only ever read celebrity/fashion gossip and never read or watched the news. She simply wasn’t interested. More than once dd was astounded by her ignorance of some major event that was all over the news.

So yes, you could call it culpable wilful ignorance, but it’s still a fact, and I dare say a reason why people of apparently normal/average intelligence, do still fall for scams.

Would you say the people you mention have normal or average intelligence? I wouldn’t.

The woman originally mentioned in the OP was groomed over a long period, with emails and letters in the post as well as phone calls.
She believed she had proof that it was all genuine.
(She now feels very bad and that it was all her own fault.)

Put it this way, Germanshepherdsmum, they certainly wouldn’t have been classed as educationally sub-normal - if that’s still an expression we’re allowed to use.

Normal schools, a handful of GCSEs in the younger one’s case - no idea about the elder (now 90 I think) but I do know that she had a reasonable sort of more glamorous office job before being married - she was incredibly beautiful in her youth.

Witzend I had an aunt and uncle like that. One had been a senior civil servant, running a large London Court, the other the Director of a nursing school in London.and they got told in no uncertain terms by most of the family that their complete lack of interest in what happened outside their small community was dangerous and also led them to constantly pontificate ignorantly about things they knew nothing about, based on things their friends, equally ignorant, told them.

I was very fond of them, and would have supported them if anything had happened to them, but I would have also told them that they brought the problem upon themselves by not keeping themselves properly informed, if that was indeed the case. There was never any lack of mental capacity in either of them.

Someone recently reached out to me via Facebook, sayingthat they wished to chat to me. I thought nothing of it an 6 weeks in though I had got to know this person something kept telling me they weren’t genuine although everything seemed to add up. My work colleague and I did some further digging and found out that the person whose picture I had fell in love with was Dermot clemengy an Irish Ballroom dancer. The scammer was supposedly working on an oil rig and had stolen the photo of the said person. Yes I’m disheartened but thankfully have not sent any money

I’m not on FB but definitely wouldn’t respond to a request like that from an unknown person. I have even been contacted by a man on GN - reported and blocked.

Never ever, engage in conversation with a stranger on FB! The odd occasion I receive them I delete and block straightaway.

Someone recently reached out to me on Facebook
yes a scammer!

........................................
why would you even respond to a random person?

My late MIL was scammed by a man who came to look at her house which was for sale.
It was a 6 bed home with land, a pool etc, this man half her age he groomed her and worked hard to turn her against family and friends.
What makes it sadder is she was in the final stages of cancer.

We went to see the Police who were helpful but no crime had been committed, they did tell us he had a record, but wouldn’t elaborate as they had already broken protocols.

We paid the estate agent a visit, he was supposed to ensure accompanied viewings but on this occasion had not.

He got away with some monetary gifts and valuables but fortunately after our sleuthing proved that he was in the UK not in Dubai on business convinced MIL he was a fraudster.

He had kept saying he couldn’t visit her in hospital as he was on business in the UAE, we waited by his home and photographed him.
Busted!

Well done Sago.
What a horrific situation.

Pleased to say I hardly bother with FB any more. Just the odd ‘like’ for something posted by a far-flung relative.

I only joined in the first place because when dd was expecting Gdd1, she said she’d be putting photos on FB. But she soon switched to WhatsApp instead.

What I found most frustrating about our neighbour’s ‘lottery’ scam, was that unless she herself complained to the police (which she was never going to, because they were so ‘nice’ and definitely genuine! - and were going to show up with her million quid any day now!) the police could do nothing unless she did, because the law takes the view that adults* are free to throw their money away as they wish.

*Unless they have been officially deemed to lack mental capacity, I suppose.

Though I dare say they’d have been unable to do anything anyway - neighbour was making all her hefty payments ‘for tax’ via Western Union, and was under the impression that all these lovely people who were so anxious to give her a million quid were in America, or ‘somewhere else’ abroad.

I am on Facebook but have never grasped all its nuances, but I can remember when I set it up, that its contents and the people who contributed to it were closed so that only friends could contact me or contribute to it unless I had invited them.

I've been on FB since lockdown and have never been contacted by anyone who isn't on my list of friends.

@alittlemadam - why ever would you respond to an approach like that?
This is not “victim blaming” but common sense.

My bank is on the ball with this. I recently transferred a sum of money to a savings account and before it went through a notice came up onscreen. It said Do you know who you are paying and if this turns out to be fraudulent you won't be able to get your money back. Other things as well that I can't remember
I've used this savings account for 3 years and it's in my name but they still checked
Probably to absolve the bank from refunding fraudulent transactions to scammers

unfortunately there is very little police action on fraud.
and the majority of crime is now carried out remotely.
so we all have to be extra vigilant, and for others too.
another evil practice is predatory marriage.
sometimes it even goes beyond fraud into murder. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-60287425
www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/retired-teacher-killed-chilling-real-21257146