RETIRED carer Mary Green is warning people, especially the elderly, of a postal scam aimed at prizing hundreds of pounds from them with the lure of winning a fortune.

Whereas such scams are commonplace on the internet Mrs Green, of Malmesbury, became concerned after receiving a letter from Bono Lotto.

The officially worded missive told her she had won £825,000 but to receive the money she would have to pay an unstated administration fee - which following further investigation turned out to be £429.

Bono Lottery gave their address as Bressenden Place, London, SW1, along with a phone number.

But when the Gazette & Herald rang the number questioning the validity of the lottery “win” the man on the end of the line who agreed he was a Bono operative quickly hung-up.

Mrs Green, 65, said she had no idea where and how the fraudsters acquired her address and other details but feared people in the Malmesbury/North Wiltshire area are now being targeted.

She said the letter from director Andrew Johnson claimed that Bono Lotto was connected with the People’s Post Code Lottery.

She said: “It’s an obvious scam but the letter is written in such a way that it could fool some people.”

She felt the elderly, especially, might be taken in and persuaded to send hundreds of pounds in order to unlock the promised £825,000.

Mrs Green said: “A lot of elderly people don’t have computers or use the internet so they don’t receive these things on email.

“I know from my time as a carer that elderly people can be fooled by this sort of thing. I’d just like to warn people about it if they receive the same letter as me.”

It was also felt that as Bono Lotto had spent so much on postage then their scam had somehow paid off.

Bono Lotto, which appears to have hi-jacked their name from ‘Bono Loto’ the Spanish state lottery, has already targeted people in Warwickshire, prompting the local trading standards office to issue an on-line warning saying “this is a scam.”