Don't join this chain gang

A new chain letter investment scam is doing the rounds.

Elsie Phillips from Epsom contacted Working Lunch after she received a letter inviting her to part with £89 of her cash in return for guaranteed riches.

It claims to be from a David Rhodes of Norfolk, and asks the recipient to send £10 cash to the first of six names and addresses listed.

It then orders you to delete this name from the list, move the other names up, and add your own to the now vacant sixth position, before copying the letter and sending it on to 200 or more random addresses.

Number one position

David Rhodes claims that if just 2% of people respond, your name will gradually rise to the number one position, and you will begin receiving money - more than £40,000 in just 60 days.

Elsie: "It's criminal"

The cost will be just £89 - for the envelopes, copying, stamps, and the original £10 investment.

"I think it's criminal really," says Elsie. "It should be stopped as quickly as possible.

"And I feel very sorry for the people that have been conned into sending money."

Tony Northcott, from the Trading Standards Institute agrees that the letters are misleading.

Small amount

"People think that just by sending off a small amount of money they're going to get a lot of money back," he says.

"The law of statistics dictates that this just won't happen, and while some people have made a small amount of money, most will lose out."

Tony: "This just won't happen"

This is just the latest in a series of similar chain letter scams which aren't yet illegal but should be ignored.

Luckily Elsie and her husband Fred saw through it, but others might not be so aware.

"I looked up the names that were mentioned on the letter and I couldn't find any in the phone directory and they certainly didn't get mine from there," says Elsie.

Convincing

"It's so convincing. It talks of guarantees and then you realise that you don't know who the man is.

"Someone is making a lot of money from it but I don't think we're going to do that."

Elsie and Fred are among a number of you who have been in touch to say you've received these letters.

These get-rich-quick schemes sound too good to be true and that's exactly what they are - the only place for them is in the bin.