RESIDENTS are being warned to on guard against lottery scamsters who seek to steal money from them by cons.

A number of scams around potential lottery wins have been sent to residents within North Yorkshire recently.

People have had letters or phone calls telling them they have won lottery money even if, as in many cases, they have not entered the competition.

North Yorkshire County Council’s trading standards officers are issuing warnings about falling for them.

One woman, in Northallerton, North Yorkshire, was sent a letter stating she had won money on the Australian lottery.

She became suspicious after noticing the letter came from a company in Madrid, Spain, and she did not reply.

Since then she has had several phone calls from the company asking her to send funds to Spain so her winnings can be sent on, which she has ignored.

A friend of the woman’s was sent a similar letter and asked her bank for a £1,000 overdraft to claim her prize.

Luckily the bank realised what she was doing and warned her against sending money.

County councillor Clare Wood, the council’s executive member for trading standards and regulatory services, said: "This is a common complaint to trading standards services up and down the country.

"Although we do not have any jurisdiction in Spain, our officers forward information to the Office of Fair Trading which in turn contacts its counterparts overseas and there have been some arrests of scammers made recently. "The prospect of easy pickings draws others to it and this is a very pernicious and difficult scam to stop.

"We would urge anyone to remember that if they have not entered a lottery then it is not possible for them to win and certainly not to send any money."