National Sweepstakes Reporting Service, Central Reporting Firm ripoff! Deceiving and luring the elderly into sending money to win large cash and prizes. Melville New York

I went through the same sort of situation with my mother several years ago. Once a person falls for one of these scams their name goes on a "sucker list" that will be sold to other scammers. Your mother will definitely be getting more of this type of mail.

My mother fell victim to these scammers. One of them was sending her as many as twenty-two pieces of mail per day and she was sending a check in for every one of them. (We only found this out later). The fertilizer finally hit the fan when the bank informed us that my mother had withdrawn $6,000 after a scammer called and told her that she had won the Canadian lottery but had to pay taxes in advance.

You are lucky if all you have lost so far is less than a hundred bucks. My mother squandered away about $35,000 before we put her in the nursing home. I was pretty upset about losing all that money until I found out that the scammers often times get 6-figure amounts.

You need to seriously review your mother's mental condition. My mother, who is almost the same age, was in the early stages of senile dementia when she got taken. My observation is that falling prey to an obvious scam is a warning sign that all is not right. I would start with a visit to your mother's doctor and see what he recommends. (Doctors, lawyers, and bankers may initially be somewhat reluctant to violate their confidentiality with your mother, but I found that once they understand that your concern is your mother's well-being they become much more cooperative.)