Dyfed Powys Police are alerting members of the public to a recently reported scam of which they have been made aware.
In essence, the nature of the scam is that the member of the public receives a letter from a company who purport to be an overseas shipping agent or distribution centre.
The letter will state that a distribution centre or shipping agent is in possession of an item or items that have been addressed to the recipient of the letter, that the item awaiting onward transmission to the recipient contains over £3,000 in money savings and discount certificates and that, in order to receive the item(s), the addressee should forward a fee of say £15 to an overseas address, the most recent being in the Netherlands, along with the enclosed authorising release form which has a reference number thereon.
A non-stamped return address envelope is enclosed to enable the addressee to respond and to give the scam an air of legitimacy.
"The letter currently in our possession does not provide a contact telephone number, fax number or e-mail address," said a police spokesman. "However, as the scam becomes more sophisticated, as these invariably do, it may well be that these are included in the future."
Dyfed Powys Police are therefore advising that if anyone receives a letter of this nature, and they are suspicious of it, they should not respond but pass it on to their local police.
"If you are not expecting a package and it sounds too good to be true then it more than likely is," said the spokesman.