Skip to content

Letter scam attempted on local woman

A local woman received a puzzling letter addressed to her late husband that turned out to be a clear example of a fraudulent scam.

A local woman received a puzzling letter addressed to her late husband that turned out to be a clear example of a fraudulent scam.

Jackie Campbell was the recipient of the letter, dated Mar. 16 and sent by an accountant named David Huffman from Indiana, but it was addressed to her husband Lyall Campbell, who passed away last year.

“That was my husband’s spelling of his name which is unusual, and it was spelled right (on the envelope),” Campbell said.

The letter claims that the recipient is to receive a $4.3 million (USD) inheritance from a deceased relative named Donald Campbell.

Campbell was suspicious of the single page note from the beginning and had her suspicions confirmed the further she read.

Towards the end of the letter, the writer stresses to keep the notice personal and not to disclose any information to anyone else “to avoid double claim on your settlement.”

“My grandson did check out (Huffman’s name) and he is an accountant but this thing comes up that this is a scam,” Campbell said.

The letter asks the recipient to contact them by e-mail with full contact information, indicating that this could also be an identity theft ploy.

In many cases, letters of this nature will ask the recipient to mail a sum of money in order to receive their full payment.

Campbell informed the RCMP about the letter but was told that police receive so many notices of instances like these that they are unable to investigate each and every one.

She also told many of her friends about the letter and a few of them received similar notices.

Campbell hopes to spread the word about this particular scam to ensure that no one is victimized by it in the future.

“I just wanted to put the word out so that people don’t go for it, that was my main concern.”