An elderly Newport man was tricked out of £680 by scammers who then laughed at him down the phone.
The man, in his seventies, responded to a letter claiming to be from the Postcode Lottery telling him he had won £225,000.
The only catch was he had to send a cheque to release the money, along with delivery and insurance costs.
He asked to remain anonymous as he said he was so embarrassed to have fallen for the lies.
“It was on official-looking headed paper with contacts for an agent called Dr Eric Moore,” he said. “I was talking to this man on the phone for three days.
“When I found out and told him I was going to report him, he just laughed.”
The man discovered he had been duped after receiving another scam letter, this time from HMRC asking for £6,750 ‘capital gains tax’ on his winnings, along with a photograph of a cheque.
This time, however, he was suspicious and called HMRC.
He said: “They said the address I had been given didn’t exist and they would never send out letters like that.”
When The Courier contacted ‘Dr Eric Moore’, he refused to apologise to his victims and instead hung up the phone.
Marilyn Baldwin, founder of the Think Jessica scam charity, said falling for such a ruse can happen to anyone and is nothing to be ashamed of.
Anyone who is concerned can contact the police national Action Fraud line on 0300 555 222, or speak to police on 101.