My 86 year old mother, normally a sensible woman who managed to raise 5 children single handedly after my father died when we were all very young, has been responding to these letters for well over 10 years, sending cheques and then cash when she runs out of cheques.

This escalated hugely last year and a wonderful person at her Bank has been helping me to try to control this for the past 6 months however there does not seem to be anyone who can offer practical advice as to how we can stop her.

Since mother is housebound, if the Post Office would agree to divert all her mail, that would almost instantly resolve the problem, (other than the phone calls made to her by scammers she gave her phone number to), but the PO won't stop or divert her mail unless she agrees which she obviously won't because she is absolutely convinced she has a big cheque coming soon.

I contacted her doctor for help but he said it's up to her what she does with her money, yes, even if she loses her house. Everyone is keen to tell you to put such letters in the bin, but no-one tells you how to intervene once your elderly relative has begun responding. My mother was sending cheques to the value of £150 a day until I took away her cheque book and cash card, which she'd also provided details of.

All the Canadian, Australian, various US scammers, so-called psychics and clairvoyants in Austria and Switzerland have their hooks into her. There does not appear to be any help available to us that we can use to save our relatives.

We've managed to intercept maybe 25% of her outgoing mail but she gets all and sundry to post mail for her. My mother only has her old age pension and I fear that if I give her back control of her bank account, she will have lost everything within at most 6 months.

In the meantime, she hates me for standing between her and thousands of pounds of "winnings" and I'm therefore damned whatever I decide to do.

More Stories...