A total of 22 victims across the city who are due a refund have been identified following an international investigation, but most were elderly and eight of those have sadly passed away before they could get their money back. Of the remainder, only four have so far proved contactable.
US-based fraudsters had targeted UK households with scam mail offering the recipients – many of whom were elderly and vulnerable – alleged ‘guaranteed’ cash prizes. A joint investigation by National Trading Standards and the US Federal Trade Commission identified the criminals, who were found to be based in Kansas, USA and had sent tens of millions of deceptive personalised mailings around the world as part of the ‘Next Gen’ sweepstakes scam.
The fraud was discovered in 2017 and three individuals responsible were forced to forfeit $30m in cash and assets in 2018, $25m of which was made available to compensate victims around the world. It has taken many months to identify the individual victims but Sheffield Council had revealed that those affected in Sheffield ar entitled to a shared total refund of £2,377.65, to be distributed by Sheffield Trading Standards.
Victims were asked for an upfront fee ranging from £25 to £40, which many paid several times before…
