Householders are being warned to beware of scam lottery letters being posted through their door.
A Newburgh resident contacted The Courier after a letter telling him he had won a £385,000 jackpot prize, and purporting to be from the People’s Postcode Lottery, set alarm bells ringing.
The People’s Postcode Lottery confirmed the letter was a fake.
Rachel Ruxton, head of communications at the lottery, said: “People’s Postcode Lottery is aware that sometimes illegitimate organisations will attempt to use our lottery’s brand to gain access to information supplied by unsuspecting members of the public.
“People’s Postcode Lottery takes such matters very seriously.
“If you receive one of these letters, phone calls, SMS messages or emails, then we strongly advise the public to treat these communications as scams and they should be ignored.”
The letter told the Newburgh resident that he had one month to claim his prize and there would be a five per cent commission for his claim.
Ms Ruxton added: “Legitimate lotteries, such as People’s Postcode Lottery, will not under any circumstances request a payment in order to receive your ‘winnings’.
“We encourage anyone who has encountered a scam to report it to Action Fraud, the UK’s national fraud reporting centre. For more information visit www.actionfraud.police.uk.”
The resident, who asked not to be named, said he feared vulnerable individuals could be caught out by the scam.
Sensing something was wrong, he carried out an internet search and discovered from a news report that a woman in the Wirral area had received a nearly identical latter last year, which even displayed the same winning numbers.
He added: “They tell you that a five per cent commission will be paid, so you pay a commission for a cheque which is never going to be cleared.
“It means you lose £19,250. That’s how the scam works.
“The address that is on my letter is 499 to 517 Oxford Street, London. When I looked that up, I discovered it was the address of a Primark store in Oxford Street in London.”