WARNING OF THE BAKER STREET SCAM

TRADING STANDARDS officers in North Yorkshire have uncovered a telephone scam based around the Baker Street address of fictional detective Sherlock Holmes.

A Harrogate man was contacted by telephone by a person purporting to be from Customs and Excise. The phone call stated that he had won a £150,000 prize but needed to send £2,300 by Western Union through Going Places to claim his prize.

The money was to be paid into a bank account, apparently of a gentleman who lived in Baker Street, London. Checks have subsequently found that the address and postcode are unrecognisable to the Royal Mail.

Trading Standards officers have concluded it does not take Sherlock Holmes to realise that this is in fact a scam. However, they are concerned that the more vulnerable members of society may indeed send off these large sums of money before they have realised that they are being taken for a ride.

Councillor Carl Les, the county council's executive member for trading standards, said: “It is of concern to me that individuals are using the telephone to try and elicit large sums of money from North Yorkshire consumers.

"While most people realise that this is a scam, there are a number of people in our community who may not realise until its too late and thereby lose considerable sums of money. We would ask anybody who receives such calls to report them to trading standards on 01609-768606 and not respond at any time.”

03-9-'03

Contact: Richard Flinton

Executive member: Councillor Carl Les (Con) 01677-423702 Mob: 07860-639600

Group spokespeople: Councillor Mrs Caroline Seymour (Lib-Dem) 01642-710382; Councillor Peter Brown (Con) 01609-780240.