Inheritance scam

HOUSEHOLDERS in Shetland are being warned against responding to a scam letter dropping through letterboxes in the isles.

Shetland Islands Council trading standards team leader David Marsh said more than a dozen different versions of the same letter had been reported over the past two days.

“Each tells an identical story, but uses a different surname for a person called Charles who is said to have died in China leaving a large unclaimed fortune. There are also several different first names used for the sender,” he said.

“We have contacted Microsoft, who have closed down the email address being used so that nobody can now reply to one of these letters if they were unfortunate enough to be taken in by the story.

“This has all the hallmarks of a scam. An offer which is really too good to be true is used to tempt people into handing over some kind of ‘administration fee’ – which will never be seen again.

“Anyone who receives such a letter should not attempt to reply to the sender, but put it in the bin where it belongs.”

A copy of the letter can be seen here.

People can contact trading standards at www.shetland.gov.uk/tradingstandards or by calling 01595 744887.