What would you do if posh chocolate was sent to you?

[YourSpleenIsDamp]

Odd issue with my parents, who are mid seventies. Not huge in itself, but there have been a couple of occasions recently where I've thought WTF, and I'm slightly worried about them, particularly as we live a couple of hundred miles apart.

Boyfriend of 5 years sent my parents a Christmas present, and has sent similar gifts in previous years when we haven't seen them on Christmas Day itself. Fab, handmade, posh chocolates (and they each have very specific dietary requirements, which the chocolate catered for); I think he spent around fifty quid. My mum mentioned earlier on the phone that they'd received some chocolate, but thought it must be some kind of scam as it didn't say who it was from, so they'd donated it to their local food bank. It can't have arrived more than a week ago. I'm really confused as to why they'd immediately think "scam!" - how could chocolate be a scam?!

Boyfriend has checked with the company, and apparently their website glitched, which meant the gift message hadn't been enclosed, so they were right that it didn't say who it was from. But why on earth would they just get rid of it immediately?! Why wouldn't they ask me or my sister, or any of their own siblings if they'd sent it before donating it? Is it just me, or is that really quite an odd thing to do?

everything’d a scam these day and we’re taught that if it seems odd not to act on it. There are scams that involve sending things unsolicited in the mail. That said, I would have asked around before donating them to the food bank.

Neither would I, although I also wouldn’t then send them to a food bank for the same reason.

It would be a good way to murder someone in a whodunnit.

If posh chocolate was sent to me I would eat it and no mistake.

No, I would have thought, 'yum yum' and eaten them. I wouldn't really have cared where they came from.

Nor I. I would try to find out who had sent it to me before disposing of it, though - check with anyone who would be likely to have sent me a gift.

Yes that's the really daft thing. Giving it away doesn't "avoid the scam" in anyway.

They probably didn't realise that they were that expensive so just donated them. I'd be more miffed that they didn't keep them for me to eat tbh.

My PIL have a very paranoid mindset and I can imagine them doing exactly this.

We needed an insurance certificate for my engagement ring so put it into a jeweller to do an appraisal etc. They were horrified at this, as apparently a jeweller could prise out diamonds and replace them with glass. I mean, I guess they could? But why would that be your first thought?

They approach their whole lives this way. I do think they read a lot about scams and try to be aware of them but it's now become a mentality that everyone is out to get them.

My mum is like this (and my dad, too). Anything “foreign” in the house, and they are obsessed with getting rid of it. Even though the house might be falling down / filled with ancient crap... The new item will be haunting them until it’s gone!

I understand the concern about a scam / malicious item but then why donate to the food bank? Poor people can be poisoned too.

Yes, it's odd, but something my mum might have done when the dementia got worse.

I don't think that excuses it at all. Why didn't they check with people first before passing it on? That's what most people would do. It's not going to self-destruct in the cupboard while they send out a few texts.

So would you pass it on to a food bank like the OPs relatives did?

It's highly unlikely anyone would send your parents poisoned chocolates.........unless they are soviet spies

It’s odd that they didn’t ask around ‘has anyone sent us chocolate’

It’s not odd that they wouldn’t eat it. I wouldn’t touch surprise food that arrived anonymously in the post. Particularly if I had dietry needs.

It is odd, and not ok, that they sent what they thought was dodgy food to a food bank!

For £50 I’d expect the company to apologise and replace the gift, it’s much more their mistake than it is the recipients.

I did think that when my dad was inhaling the hotel chocolat gingers before even reading the card with it
If you wanted to kill him off, just do it with stem ginger

If it was a scam to poison and kill me I'd definitely have died. It's such a shame there was no gift note enclosed with the chocolates, what a waste of a kind thought (and all that ££!)

I'd never heard of that Amazon scam, and I'd just like to say to any Amazon sellers who may see this thread - feel free to 'scam' me by sending me free stuff please!

my late MiL would have done that, and yes her dementia presented as paranoia in the early stages. Anything that she mislaid was “stolen”. So, mislaid her specs in the house, someone had come in (through the deadlocked door, with no sign if a breakin) and stole her specs - nothing else. On and on it went. Anyone she didn’t know was a criminal, wouldn’t have any help in the house because criminal, wouldn’t accept any deliveries even of stuff she had ordered herself because criminals. What can you do? 🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️

This is absolutely how mum was with her Alzheimer's. She was convinced that everyone was out to scam her, people were stealing her things and she would have probably thrown the chocolates away as well.

Might not be the case your your parents, but worth keeping an eye on?

Yes, many of us know that scam, but it’s nothing to do with your parcels being poisoned. It’s data hacking, nothing about which would be solved by donating poisoned food to a food bank.

It sounds like they have been reading too much Agatha Christie

I wouldn't eat food that arrived, unsolicited and without a note, in the post. I'd have binned them.

I also probably wouldn't have wasted my precious time or effort chasing down where they came from, as they were just a box of chocolates. Would probably have made much, much more of an effort if it was a case of wine!

I'd be a bit gutted that someone spent £50 on some chocolates for me, tbh, as chocolates just aren't worth that to me.