I’ve only ever received one or two of the infamous Nigerian email scam letters and never gave them a second thought. Today however, I received by post, complete with Ugandan stamps, a handwritten letter on a lined sheet of paper from a girl purporting to be 16 year old orphan unable to come up with fees for school asking me to pass on my contact details to her school so i can help her pay.
Luckily I’m not a lonely old lady who’s a sucker for a good sob story, but I am a little pissed that someone, probably someone I bought something from online, sold my name and home address to these scam artists. It’s one thing to be able to hide behind an anonymous email, it’s another having these things come into my home. Hubby thinks I should report it but I don’t see any point…I expect a massive “so what” shrug from the police.
Should I be more concerned than I am about these people having my address?
The police is not the agency you would report this too. Normally, your state’s attorney general’s office would handle attempted scams and mail fraud cases. If they see a high incidence of these types of things they will investigate and also get the word out to the media so that unsuspecting citizens, such as the elderly, etc. can become aware and are less likely to get scammed.