A STICKLEPATH woman has warned other people not to be taken in by a mail scam offering people a £10,000 prize cheque. Mrs Beatrice Symm received three letters in as many days from companies with different names, but using the same return PO Box number, each telling her she had been chosen as the sole winner of a large cheque. The letters told Mrs Symm all she had to do to claim her prize was order one item from a small, enclosed catalogue. The reply address was to a PO Box number based in Hounslow. Mrs Symm, a former police officer, contacted Trading Standards in Hounslow, who said PO Box numbers can be used to collect mail which is then forwarded on to other areas. In some recent cases cheques and bank details appear to have been sent to Belgium. Mrs Symm said she was ?incensed? at the thought of other people falling prey to such mail scams. ?I am a pensioner. I was tempted, but I thought, don?t be silly. I just want to let people be warned about these sorts of letters,? she said. Peter Green from Devon Trading Standards said: ?Our general advice to people is, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true.? He said Devon Trading Standards had published advice to people to be wary of letters stating the homeowner had won a cash prize and requesting a smaller fee in order to claim it, and letters which may even claim you have won a foreign lottery without having purchased a ticket. Mr Green said letters often used deceptive wording to imply without ever specifically stating that the recipient had won the prize. However, even if there is no get-out clause in the small print none of these letters ever pay out any cash prizes, he said. Devon Trading Standards says sending money to one may result in that name being sold on to other fraudsters and the home-owner could become bombarded with letters of a similar nature. Their advice to those who receive one of these letters is simply throw it in the bin.