Chinese bank scam in East Devon

POLICE are warning people in East Devon about scam letters being sent out, claiming to be from a Chinese based banking employee. The sender says they have a large sum of money in their bank that belongs to someone who is now deceased with the same last n

POLICE are warning people in East Devon about scam letters being sent out, claiming to be from a Chinese based banking employee.

The sender says they have a large sum of money in their bank that belongs to someone who is now deceased with the same last name as the recipient.

It tempts the recipient to enter into a fraudulent agreement by posing as the beneficiary, taking a 50 per cent cut rather than handing the money back to the state.

Peter Kilpatrick from the Devon and Cornwall police economic crime unit said: "This is a scam. Anyone receiving these letters should ignore them and not be tempted to respond. A number of letters have been sent using different Chinese names but the content of the letter is essentially the same.

"A bank official wouldn't be using a free email service such as yahoo, gmail or hotmail, this is the biggest give-away.