Lottery scam letters

My 89-year-old neighbour is being bombarded with letters from China, Malaysia, Netherlands, you name it, saying she’s a lucky winner – if she sends $40 she can claim her prize. I realise these are overseas lottery scam letters. Unfortunately, I think she has replied to some of these and is now getting around 70 such letters a week.

Ah, the old international lottery scams. First of all, I don’t recommend you “return to sender”. It will achieve nothing but show the scammers that they have a “live” address – someone’s there. That’s likely to prompt even more letters. New Zealand Post don’t know of any processes in place to deal with this sort of situation.

She already has several hundred. As she has had a nasty fall, I am trying to take care of these matters for her. I am going to try sending them back “return to sender” but I have doubts that will work. Is there any way I can stem the flow?

I couldn’t help thinking that your local sorting room, where your postie picks up the letters, could help. Given your neighbour’s 89, maybe they could hold aside all the lottery letters addressed to her so that legitimate letters don’t get lost in the mayhem, and maybe deliver them separately. Most lottery-scam letters are recognisable so it shouldn’t take too much time.

But New Zealand Post tells me they “don’t have the manpower” to do that and there’s a legal requirement to post these letters. I think they could be more helpful than that. It looks like it’s going to be up to you and other kind neighbours to help. Remind her not to reply to these letters and certainly not to send any money.