Elaborate new ‘scam’ appears to target the most vulnerable
I FEAR that there may be a sophisticated new ‘scam’ that seems to be targeted at the most vulnerable people in our community, those who are elderly and suffering from conditions that may have reduced their ability to stand up to someone demanding the payment of fictitious debts and threatening dire consequences if their demands were not met quickly.
Only today I read on social media a story about a lady who’s experience was exactly the same as mine. She was sent paperwork purporting to be from a public body demanding payment of large sums and this action was repeated the following year. The ‘debts’ were presented in a way that required very detailed investigation to detect and expose that. Many older people would assume that because they were presented in a way that looked official and because the perpetrators obviously had access to personal and financial data about their victims that could only have come from States of Guernsey records, and would pay the demands without question.
My suspicions were aroused about the shady organisation responsible for the heartless, inexcusable preying on vulnerable citizens by the fact that there was no physical address shown for any office and because none of the demands were ever signed. No encouragement was ever given to contact them with queries about their demands and any attempt to talk anyone was met with multiple barriers, while emails were ignored. Surely there could not be any legitimate organisation that behaved in such a way?
The gang responsible for causing so much distress to old people – though others may also be targeted – tries to give itself a veneer of respectability by operating under the name States of Guernsey Revenue Service.
Barrie Paige
GY6 8BP