A SURPRISE letter to a Wirral pensioner announcing he had won a huge jackpot turned out to be a dangerous scam.

William Ward from Bebington is warning Globe readers to beware after believing he had won £325,000 from a firm claiming to be the People's Postcode Lottery.

Alarm bells sounded when wife Patricia telephoned a "winners hotline" to claim the cash.

She was told £6,000 in "stamp duty" would need to be paid upfront before the money would be released.

Mr Ward a father-of-five, said: "When I opened the letter I thought 'this is it. I've won.' 

Wirral Globe:

William Ward with the hoax letters

"But after reading it properly I realised it was a con and left it there.

"I wouldn’t have minded, but it arrived on my 77th birthday."

The retired delivery driver and ex-soldier continued: "There are a lot of people out there who would have fallen for this and paid the £6,000.

"My advice is don’t fall for it."

Patricia, 74, added: "It's disgusting that companies are allowed to get away with sending letters like this.

"I was just so angry to think that we could have been fooled into parting with our hard-earned money."

The letter said: "Your name has been approved to claim a total sum of £325,000. This is from a total cash prize of £45m.

Wirral Globe:

William is advising others not to fall for the con

"Your claims company will be paid 5% of the award price as the commission after you have received your money.

"Finally all winning must be claimed not later than 30th September - after this date the entire fund will be returned to the UK board of National Lottery as unclaimed."

It said Mr Ward had been selected at random from the electoral roll.

Rachel Ruxton from the genuine People's Postcode Lottery warned against this type of scam and said the organisation would never ask for payment to claim a prize.

She said: "People's Postcode Lottery is aware that sometimes illegitimate individuals and organisations will attempt to use our lottery's brand to gain access to information or details supplied by unsuspecting members of the public.

"People's Postcode Lottery takes such matters very seriously. If you receive one of these letters, phone calls, SMS messages or emails, then we strongly advise the public to treat these communications as scams and they should be ignored.

"Legitimate lotteries such as People’s Postcode Lottery will not under any circumstances request a payment in order to receive your 'winnings'.

"If you are at all suspicious, then contact our customer service team on 0808 1098 765."

You can report a scam to the national fraud reporting centre at www.actionfraud.police.uk