A LOTTERY scam which cost a pensioner £8,000 is being used by police to highlight the dangers posed by conmen.

A man in his 70s from the Evesham area, who has not been named, lost the cash to an international lottery scam and has since received hundreds of letters in the post.

West Mercia Police is using the case as an example of the post, e-mail, text and phone scams that are used to part people from their money and to mark scams awareness month, launched by the Office of Fair Trading.

With the support of consumer champion Esther Rantzen, the OFT is calling on people to bin scam mailings in Scamnesty bins located around the country.

West Mercia Police was recently contacted by the man, who received a scratchcard in a magazine in 2009.

After he had matched three symbols on the card he called the telephone number on the card to receive his prize. The call cost him £20 and he never received a prize.

Following this, he received numerous letters asking if he wanted to subscribe to a foreign lottery. Between August 2009 and May 2010, he sent the company a total of £720 in cash.

In May 2010, he received a letter saying that he had won $4.6 million US dollars on the Australian lottery.

He then paid a total of £7,554 in trying to claim his winnings and he was asked for more and more money for various administrative tasks. In the last three months, the victim has received nearly 300 letters from various places around the world telling him that he had won numerous prizes, but all requiring him to send off cash or make premium rate phone calls.

Detective Constable Dave Foley, of the fraud squad at West Mercia Police, said: “Fraudsters send out these tempter letters and once someone replies to one, their details are sold to criminals all over the world.

“Unfortunately, many vulnerable people, such as the elderly and those with learning difficulties or mental health problems, make their way on to these lists and are bombarded with mail.

“I would strongly suggest that anyone who receives any unsolicited mail offering prizes of cash or holidays or luxury goods ignores them.

“Do not ring the premium rate telephone number, as this will cost you a small fortune.

“If you haven’t bought a ticket, then you won’t have won anything. If it looks too good to be true, then it probably is.”

Scamnesty boxes are being placed at locations around Worcestershire, including a number of Hub buildings and at County Hall.

Several media outlets, including your Worcester News, have also shown their support and backed the campaign by having the red boxes in their offices.