In addition to familiar phishing scam emails, postal mail fraud is increasing. A Jamaican lottery scam has been increasingly pesky lately. Scammers use the old-fashioned postal service (instead of an email phishing scam) to try and snag you.
They focus on people over the age of 70 - although they'll gladly take your money no matter how old you are - so check in on parents and neighbors who might be targeted. The Jamaican lottery scam asks for personal information for ID theft, and some of them even send a fake cashier's check. Scammers increasingly use PO Boxes in the USA to look more legitimate.
The US Postal Service issued a fraud warning in response to increased Jamaican lottery scam activity, and they remind you that foreign lotteries are generally illegal. How's that for a scam: you lose money and get in trouble with the law.
Further reading:
Great article but how do you stop them from calling you every moring with different names but always the same amount etc… I jus need to help my in-laws.
These people call my mother who is 79 years old every day starting at 6:00 in the morning. Outside of having her number changed, is there anything legally that can be done. She has been threatened by these dogs and fears that they may be watching her every move. Let me know if there is anything that can be done to stop this harrassment.
You should provide as much information as you can to the FTC (at 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357) or visit ftc.gov), and hopefully they can track these people down.
More creative approaches include turning the phone number into a VOIP number and blocking suspicious callers (or blocking time slots). Some services (Google Voice perhaps?) allow you to make it sound like the number was disconnected under certain circumstances.
Finally, check with your phone company to see if they have any solutions.