my mother had a phone call last week and a message was left saying about it was a bob Jones trying to contact a Liz and pat that he knew in the 70's (both names are sort of in our family). she has now received a letter with an Australian stamp and postmark and from Bob Jones asking about these people and he would like to get in touch as he has terminal illness!!! GREAT BIG ALARM BELLS DING DONG DING DONG, it was addressed to my father who has never lived at that house with my mum (separated 16yrs ago) but he died 5 yrs ago anyway.
I have told her it is a scam but I think if it wasn't Australia she would phone to say she wasn't interested, which in my view is total madness. its hand written but wording is odd.

told her to throw it away, but I can now see how people get caught by these horrible people with phones calls then a follow up letter.

anyone else had Bob Jones call them lately???

My father was just as gullible with this sort of letter.  Living alone, he had more time to dwell on things, and I had to be quite assertive with him, as he was so easily taken in.

They are very popular, wherever you are.

> anyone else had Bob Jones call them lately???

It could be quite genuine - people do try to find friends that they have lost touch with :) However, unless there are people in your family called Liz and Pat AND they know someone from the 1970s called Bob Jones, then it is common sense to ignore it :)

My husband's aunt had a similar sort of letter many years ago - it was from a long-lost cousin :) Friends of the cousin used to look up the (unusual) family surname in telephone directories when on holiday, make a note of names and addresses and pass them on to the cousin when they returned home. The cousin would then write a letter asking if the occupant belonged to his family :) It was quite simple for the aunt to know that she was connected and she passed the letter to her sister (my OH's mother) who replied.

I'm not saying that this isn't a scam, but not all such contact is :) :)

Well my mum has never heard of a bob jones and when he said he ill it was worrying. Guess we wait and see if more contact is made. The Liz and Pat are confusing, my nan was Beatrice but known as Bet (could be mistaken for Elizabeth) she died 14yrs ago. My mum is Pat and her sister in law is Patricia. Where he said they lived didn't make sense either. Scam in my view.

Most people have probably got people with names along those lines somewhere in their family. For the time being I would ignore it or possibly pop to the police station and look online to see if this is one of the lates scams.

Hey Lorripop,
if i were you i would search the telephone number! (for example here: http://www.tellows.co.uk)
Maybe you will find other victims reporting something about a Bob jones. Then you could show that to your mother!
Hope it will work!

Have you asked other people in the family if they may recognise the name? 

I think its unlikely its a scam if theres been a hand written letter, postmarked and stamped from Aus...

I would be thinking it is a genuine attempt from someone in Aus trying to contact long lost friends/relatives but they have the wrong family.

After all, if its a scam... what do they stand to gain from it? With most scams its damn obviously immediately what the benefit to the scammer actually is.

Oh I agree that it could go either way, the name Jones is one most foreigners along with Smith would pluck out and hopefully get a hit with somewhere along the line. E-mail scams are becoming very well known some groups may be going back to mail and phone calls again? 

They just then send out letters to British addresses to see if they get a hit 'Bob Jones' may well be recognised by someone from the 70's along with Liz or Pat, then once the letters are forwarded then asking for money begins possibly for the plane fare to come back to die? Or perhaps he is leaving an inheritance to them **scoff** and wants the old change my foreign cheque of £150,000 and just send me back £10,000 the rest is yours kind of thing, bounce, bounce, bounce, whoops! :-D Or they want you to pay for the solicitors, tax to receive your inheritance.

Who knows? The names will not be uncommon they will make a hit somewhere, maybe many times.........

If the story doesn't fit and things are wrong, most likely a scam, your mum has been trying to make the names fit, but doesn't seem to have been close to anyone called Bob Jones so tell her to ask herself why someone dying would really wish to find two people who they were never close to. 

Probably just coincidence, which unfortunately may well entice some into the web. :-(

Keep an eye on your mum, make sure she gives no personal details, including her D.O.B or place of birth and certainly no account numbers or money. She must view this as a scam unless something clicks to be different tell her to be totally on her guard here.

Have a look on www.whitepages.com.au and see if the surname and address match. It's the Australian version of the phone book.

If they match that would increase the chances of this being a genuine enquiry.

Bob jones comes up a lot in searches for scams but I can't find anything specific from Australia. The letter did say he was ill!!
It's just that he addressed to my dad as but only as mr A ******** not by his first name of Alan. But my dad has never lived at that address he sent it to plus died 5 years ago anyway.
I've told her to ignore for time being.