King's Lynn resident concerned for other residents after receiving scam letter

A West Norfolk resident has shown his concern after receiving a worrying letter in the post.

John Elliott from Gayton opened a letter last week claiming he had a relative that left him millions of pounds overseas in China.

“I want to warn others about this in the area, especially people who are elderly or vulnerable,” said Mr Elliott.

A spokesperson from Norfolk County Council said: “Scam inheritance letters frequently circulate making claims that the recipient of the letter can benefit from a substantial amount of money.

“Anyone contacting the scammers will quickly start to receive requests for personal and financial details followed by requests for payments of various fees so they can release your non-existent inheritance.

“If you receive this, or a similar letter, just recycle it after obliterating your details printed on the letter. Do not reply with personal details.

"The following are easy ways to spot an inheritance scam letter.

"The amount of money on offer and the percentage claimed that is available to you will be extremely large.

"Letters / documents provided by the fraudsters are generally badly written with spelling mistakes and poor grammar.

"Look out for webmail addresses such as @Yahoo, @Gmail or @Hotmail. They are freely available making them easy to set up and equally easy to shut down.

"Fraudsters often claim that the person who has died was the victim of a well-publicised incident, such as plane crashes and natural disasters. To add credibility, they may even use the identity of someone who really did die in the incident.

"If you have received a letter which you believe to be a scam you can report it to us via our partners, the Citizens Advice consumer helpline on freephone 0808 223 1133."