A frustrated Morwell resident, who regularly receives letters from overseas companies claiming he has won millions of dollars, has had enough.
John Elbers, 81, initially provided his credit card details to the senders of the first two letters he received in January and as a result lost $50.
Mr Elbers realised he had been scammed when he received no response from the companies and immediately cancelled his credit card.
He has since collected various letters that continue to flood his letterbox from companies claiming to be based in Canada, the United States, Hong Kong and England, with some sharing the same return address.
Mr Elbers said the professional-looking letters claimed he had either won millions of dollars or he owed small amounts of money.
He said before the deluge of letters he had not signed up to any clubs, services or newsletters and could only assume the alleged scammers had taken his address from the phone book.
“I could maybe remove my name (from the phone book), but I don’t think it would help,” Mr Elbers said.
He said he did not know how to stop the overwhelming amount of letters being delivered to his address.
“I’m sick of all these papers. It really drives you crazy,” he said.
“All I can do is put it in the paper shredder and throw it away.”
Australia Post spokeswoman Michelle Skehan said people in Mr Elbers’ position should phone ScamWatch, which worked closely with AP to inform them of suspicious company names.
“We withhold the mail if we know something is fraudulent,” Ms Skehan said.
“Raising public awareness of scams is one of the best ways to protect the community and Australia Post works closely with the ACCC to alert our customers to scams, including providing information on our website.”
If you believe you are being scammed or would like more information, visit www.scamwatch.gov.au
