SOCIAL housing tenants and vulnerable homeowners across Gloucester are being warned after scam letters arrived at the home of a community stalwart.
Pat Scannell, of the Gloucestershire Pensioners’ Forum, has had two letters claiming to offer him money and a phone call, in the past few weeks.
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REPORTED LETTERS: Pat Scannell.
Mr Scannell, 72, who also sits on the Gloucester City Homes board, received one letter from a Juchu Gua which has been received by countless others across Gloucester.
The other letter is a fake letter from the accounts department of non-existant “European Lottery Guild”, urging him to send money to claim a jackpot.
He said: “The problem is a lot of pensioners would probably think it was great, but the truth is nobody is giving money away these days, and there are a lot of scams.
“When I got the letter, I must admit I thought they’d found something because I have a few long-lost uncles, including one called William who was lost in the war, so I was going to phone the number. But I decided to call the Police Community Support Officer instead.”
Pat reported the issue, and is urging other residents to do the same if they receive such a letter.
He said: “The police are running a case on it, and they need to know.”
Gloucester City Homes chief executive Ashley Green endorsed Pat’s campaign, and said the company would help to protect its clients.
He said: “We fully support Pat’s efforts to alert residents to these scam letters and will be including advice about this on our website and in our Tenant Times newsletter.
Case
“I would advise any resident who receives a letter that they are concerned about not to respond to it but to report it to Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040.
“Residents of our sheltered housing schemes may initially wish to seek advice from their Community Scheme Manager if they are unsure about a letter they have received.”
A police spokesman said all scam letters should be reported, and confirmed that the first letter had been received by many people.
He said: “The letter refers to a fund of $17.5million being liquidated and transferred to China where someone called William is making an urgent investment requiring cash. Police are urging anyone who receives the letter not to reply and to report it on 101, quoting incident 240 of June 8.”