To combat a global network of mass-mailing fraud schemes that have cost millions of vulnerable U.S. victims hundreds of millions, the U.S. Justice Department announced wide-ranging enforcement actions – including criminal charges, sanctions, seizure of criminal proceeds and civil injunction lawsuits.

The Justice Department, in coordination with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, and other law enforcement partners, made the announcement in a press release on Thursday, Sept. 22.

Simultaneously, a consortium of government agencies and nonprofit groups led by the department’s Consumer Protection Branch and Elder Justice Initiative announced a public education campaign to heighten public awareness and educate potential victims and their families about these schemes.

The actions are part of a broader effort by the department and its international law enforcement partners to attack fraud schemes targeting older Americans and other vulnerable populations that involve individuals and entities across the globe, including Canada, France, India, the Netherlands, Singapore, Switzerland, Turkey and the U.S., the release said.

“Every year, fraudulent mail schemes target millions of Americans with false promises of wealth and riches, swindling hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens,” Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch said in the release. “Today’s actions send a clear message that the Department of Justice is determined to hold the perpetrators of these harmful schemes accountable.”

The mail schemes involve a complicated web of actors located across the world and each scheme follows a similar pattern. Fraudulent “direct mailers” create letters falsely claiming that the recipient has won, or will soon win, cash or valuable prizes, or otherwise will come into good fortune. In order to collect these benefits, the letters say that the recipients need only send in a small amount of money for a processing fee or taxes.

The letters appear to come from legitimate sources, typically on official-looking letterhead, and – even though they are in reality identical form letters – the letters appear to be personally addressed. Some solicitations even use fonts that appear to be handwritten, the release said.

“In the 21st century, the scam in your mailbox just as likely comes from the other side of the world as from the other side of town,” Director Jessica Rich of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection said in the release. “The FTC’s efforts to protect consumers don’t stop at our borders; we work with partners around the world against the perpetrators of mass mailing fraud.”

The recent actions include labeling PacNet Services Ltd., an international payments processor and money services business based in Vancouver, Canada, as a significant transnational criminal organization that is prohibited from engaging in U.S. transactions; and charging Ercan Barka, 34, a resident of Turkey who operated True Vision LLC, a Delaware-based corporation, with conspiracy to commit mail fraud.

Separate civil actions were brought against BDK Mailing GmbH, Mailing Force Pte. Ltd. and Only Three Pte. Ltd. (collectively BDK), based in Switzerland and Singapore; Macromark Inc., a Connecticut-based list broker that has marketed BDK’s lead lists to third-party direct mailers; Mary Ellen Meyer, 45, of Mahopac, New York, a Macromark client service manager; and Mail Order Solutions India Pvt. Ltd. (MOSI), an India-based printer and distributor, and its principals, Dharti Desai, 49, of New York County and Mumbai, India, and Mehul Desai, also of Mumbai, who allegedly served as BDK printer/distributors.

In a separate civil injunction action, the department alleged that DMCS Inc., Direct Marketing Consulting Services Inc., Horizon Marketing Services Inc., Quantum Marketing Inc., and their principals, Sean Novis, 46; Gary Denkberg, 53; and Cathy Johnson, 34, all of Nassau County, N.Y., for disseminating fraudulent solicitations styled as notifications of a big prize win, a scheme that grossed roughly $30.4 million since 2012, the release said.

Other enforcement actions were taken against two Dutch businesses, Kommunikatie Service Buitenland B.V. and Trends Service in Kommunikatie B.V.; Glen Burke, 56, and a co-defendant, Michael Rossi, 51, both of Las Vegas, Nev., for a telemarketing scam; Terry Somenzi, 74, of Los Angeles, who did business through a company called International Advisory Services Inc.; David Raff, 54, of Weston, Fla., and his company, Millennium Direct Inc., also doing business as MDI Lists; and Ian Gamberg, 37, also of Weston, doing business through Printmail Corporate Solutions Inc.; Waverly Direct Inc., and its owner, Gordon Shearer, a New York-based direct mailer; and Nicholas Valenti of Nevada.

More information on fraud against the elderly is available at https://www.justice.gov/elderjustice/. For more information about the Consumer Protection Branch and its enforcement efforts, visit http://www.justice.gov/civil/consumer-protection-branch.