Leech Calls for End of "Prize Draw" Con

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 5th Jul 2006

John Leech, Liberal Democrat MP for Manchester Withington, has tabled a motion in Parliament to try and put a stop to the scourge of bogus Prize Draw notifications sent to unsuspecting residents in the post.

John Leech tabled the motion after concerned residents contacted him about letters they had received seemingly informing them that they had won large amounts of money in various prize draws. In fact these letters are sent out in bulk to thousands of recipients and are bogus more often than not.

Often, the huge prizes mentioned do not exist, or the recipients receive only a tiny proportion. Very often the recipients are fooled into paying out a fee in order to claim a prize which either never turns up, or turns out to be next-to-nothing. Often there is no telephone number to contact after a fee has been sent off and the prize has not turned up. The senders often originate from abroad, making it next to impossible to get back in touch with them.

John Leech said:

"These letters purport to inform people that they have won an unexpected windfall. However this is often very far from the reality. I am concerned that these scams often seem to target elderly or vulnerable people and are designed to get them to part with their money on very spurious grounds. That is why I have called on the Government to find a way to prevent these mailings."

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

Text of John Leech's Early Day Motion - "Unsolicited Prize Draw Mailings."

That this house notes with concern the prevalence of unsolicited mailings purporting to inform the recipients that they have won a prize, but which result in the recipient paying a fee in order to claim prizes which do not exist or are of a lower value than the fee itself, further notes that many of these mailings originate from abroad or contain inadequate contact details for the companies sending them, condemns the practice of sending these mailings to recipients who are elderly or vulnerable people and calls on the Government to take steps to prevent the mass mailing of fraudulent prize draw notifications to UK citizens.