Writer of the Horrific and Surreal

The reason I believe this is a scam is “back in the day” a similar letter arrived.

This morning I went out to the letterbox and picked up a letter with a fake Tracking Reference on it. How do I know it’s fake? Tracked mail usually gets signed for and not just placed in your letterbox. Tracking ref 011. Umm… oh one one? I think ref numbers are at least nine characters long and not rubber stamped onto the envelope.

I opened the letter as one does and discovered it came from Reader’s Digest. The first thought that popped into my head was all the trouble I had with them back in the 90’s, when I opened a letter just like this one claiming I had won a prize, or more correctly I had potentially won a prize…if I subscribed to a years worth of magazines.

Shouldn’t this be illegal?

Some things in the letter were incorrect, and should have been researched before sending out. In the Letter, they say: …we could offer you the chance to claim the prize as an immediate transfer of funds to the financial institution of your choice in Hataitai. If they knew anything about Hataitai, they would know this is a small village with no financial institutions at all. The nearest is in Kilbirnie (a ten+ minute bus ride). There were a couple of other things I won’t mention ’cause this goes out onto the Net.

The back of the letter has a confusing statement. The front of the letter claims this is a $30,000 lucky number giveaway (at least they upped the prize. Used to be $10,000) but on the back they have an extract from the 97th sweepstakes rules.

If I remember correctly, I subscribed to a years worth of reader’s digest magazines, which were boring, but I stuck with it as I had made a commitment. The enclosed letter at the time of the first magazine said I would need to renew my membership at the end of 12 months. 15 months later I was still getting the worthless magazines and a bill arrived. (I said / She said time) I called and I told them I did not renew my subscription as the magazine sucked. They responded with: your membership is automatically carried over. I said: Didn’t get no letter saying that. I still had the original letter saying that I had to renew my membership. She said: that letter was wrong and I HAD to pay $XX.XX (don’t remember the cost) immediately. I said: No, I don’t. There was no letter of policy change; the agreement I said was, according to you, based on an incorrect letter. I also have a letter reminding me to re-subscribe as my membership ended in three months time.

I then hung up on her.

The magazines stopped coming. No bill was resent and no letter arrived from them for a couple of years. 15 years later, as I enrol to vote at my new address, this letter arrives. It should be illegal to gather personal details for SPAM mass mailing. It’s illegal to do it via E-mail, it should be illegal via post as well.

Scammers are doing the same thing in Australia — Darwin News Blog