Dear Editor,

I read the Milpitas Post police blotter section last week about the actions of some of the most immoral people in the world plying their fraudulent schemes on the elderly.

My dad died last year at 93 after suffering Alzheimer's for about 10 years. Approximately nine years ago, we noticed the mail he was getting and realized he had gotten onto a "sucker's mailing list." My father had sent out about $70,000 over a two-year period to these schemes and my dad, once a very smart man, was suckered into every scam.

We literally had to physically hold him down and stop him from mailing another cashier's check for $3,000 to a "You Won the Canadian Lottery Scam" just pay the taxes and we will send you the million dollars not! Just one time but they called him every day for months because they knew he would send more. They would say "Herb! the Canadian government needs a little more tax money since you are not Canadian." They did this for six months. Dad sent out about $37,000 in cashier's checks to them in Canada. We read about this fraud run by the "mob" in New York having these people calling from Canada pretending to be your agent and savior. If he promised to send money, they would call every day checking with my dad until the next check arrived.

He was sending about $300 a month to a Oliver North Fight China organization. Dad, aged about 85 years at that time, told me he was going with Oliver North to China and disable them somehow. Oliver had invited

I went through his dresser drawers and found letters from psychics who were telling dad "a certain member in your family is trying to take all your money. We love you, and think about you every single day, for $1,200 we can tell you who this person is." I found about a dozen of these letters all with a slightly different approach. One told him what to invest in more scams. Dad apparently sent them money every couple of weeks.

Two dresser drawers were packed with literally cases of vitamins. Each case was one type of vitamin. There was about a 50-year supply of vitamins and they were telling him about another vitamin to buy and how much you will save by buying a case.

This fraud list goes on and on. About $70,000 of cash was the final total lost to these crooks.

I whole-heartedly feel these scams are capital crimes and these scum-scammers who take your loved-ones' last few dollars deserve capital punishment just as much as a mass murderer does.

Watch your elderly parents and siblings. Watch your elderly spouse. (The sucker's list is waiting for them and you.)

Butch Martens

Milpitas