ROSEMARY MACMULLEN: It could be you! (falling for the latest money scam) (From Hampshire Chronicle)

ROSEMARY MACMULLEN: It could be you! (falling for the latest money scam)

2:23pm Thursday 19th April 2007 in News

I COULD see myself drifting along the canals of Venice, exploring the eternal city of Rome or prancing along the boulevards of gay Paris.

"We wrote to you some months ago and cannot understand why you have not taken up our promotional offer." said the letter.

"You and a companion can have a holiday worth £600 for FREE!"

I spent a happy half-hour, sipping cappuccino and browsing through the brochures. Wouldn't it be lovely to surprise one of my friends?

Just £20 administrative costs seemed a small price to pay, so before I knew it I had written a cheque.

It did seem a bit too good to be true when I thought about previous prizes I thought I'd won.

There was that family cruise in America. When I told the rep on the telephone in London that my son was in Canada, he said he could join me on board and asked me to hold on while he transferred me to one colleague after another. Little did I know I was now talking to his colleagues in New York.

The cruise turned out to be a ferry trip only, and you had to pay your own flights to America and hotel bills to boot. My phone bill came to over £50 for that call!

I decided to go to the Isle of Wight instead.

I was once convinced I had won a money prize in a scratch card competition as a date was arranged for me to attend the prize giving, and they asked to use my photo for publicity.

I did ask questions but they had plausible answers.

I had a cheerful time planning my flat makeover before I watched Crimewatch one evening and found it was a scam.

At least I had only imagined spending it - one poor lady had bought a new car in advance of the presentation and another had booked a foreign holiday.

All I'd lost was my dream of riches, so I bought tins of paint and got on with the decorating myself.

Official figures show that £100 million a year is being conned out of us.

One scam currently doing the rounds is a foreign Lottery where people are told they have been entered for free, then weeks later rung to say they have won big prizes.

They have paid a considerable amount to cover tax on earnings and later discovered the company has departed with their cash, only to set up the same scam somewhere else.

There's a very long list of disappointed people writing their experiences on the internet.

As for me, anything dodgy coming through my letterbox will now go straight into my recyling bin, along with that return envelope!