Stupid people deserve to be parted from their money....
Do you include my then aged and now late mother in the class of fools who *deserve* to be parted from their money?
For the last few years of her life one of the problems I had to deal with was her willingness to send cheques for five to ten pounds to this kind of scammers at a rate of several a week, sometimes several a day.
Initially she'd show me the letters, and I'd explain that they were from swindlers and that she should throw them away. Later she concealed them from me because she didn't want that advice.
If you had sat at the Sunday tea table with your octogenarian mother and said "Mother, I am worried sick that you are being targeted by confidence tricksters from across the world. Please do not send them any money, please do not respond at all to any of their approaches." without it having any effect on her behaviour, perhaps you might have a different opinion on this problem.
Until the end of her life she was capable of shopping, holding a sensible conversation, personal care and (limited by mobility and eyesight) housework. Her critical faculties were not totally impaired, as letters from 'psychics' were always shown to me and laughingly chucked into the bin as ridiculous.
However, she was preyed on systematically by confidence tricksters who used carefully crafted letters to steal money from her. (Letters managed by sophisticated mailing techniques and response monitoring, undoubtedly using computers. Look, an IT angle!)
So tell me why she deserved that?
I am glad that the police have taken action here; I know that there are many other similar crooks who also need to be pursued.
Neil