HAMPSHIRE trading standards bosses have warned people not to be fooled after another wave of scam lottery letters began arriving on doormats across the county.

The latest scam again purports to be from a Spanish-based company called Euro Millions Lottery International, but experts are warning the firm is simply a front for fraudsters.

The letters tell people their name has been picked by a computer as the winner of a 1m euros top prize, and that to claim the cash all they need do is send in some details about themselves to a "claim agent" in Spain.

Hampshire trading standards and police warned that anyone replying would be pestered for handling fees before the company mysteriously vanished along with their cash.

One of those on the receiving end of the letters this week, which are addressed from a Don Juan Carlos from Madrid, is former technical clerk Brian Moon, 72, from Bitterne, Southampton, who got one addressed to his wife Jennifer, 67.

Brian said: "I became suspicious because it asked for all this personal information, such as my passport number, date of birth and banking details.

"I thought, if I've won all this money, then why are they asking for this stuff? And, when they asked me to get in touch with an agent, and said he would take ten per cent of the winnings, it was clearly just rubbish."

When the Daily Echo contacted Euro Millions Lottery International on Mr Moon's behalf, the man who answered the phone insisted it was a real win.

But when we put it to him that he was a fraudster out to scam Hampshire residents, and we were going to pass his details on to the police, he simply replied: "See if I care. This company is not illegal." He then hung up and we could not get back through.

A spokesman for trading standards said: "Unless you have actively applied to a lottery draw, if you receive one of these letters our advice would be don't even consider it, just chuck it straight in the bin."

Last month the Daily Echo reported how a pensioner had been conned out of £16,000 after receiving a letter saying she had won more than £1m in the El Mundo Online Sweepstake Lottery.

The 82-year-old from Totton parted with the cash after being told repeatedly to send large sums of money to cover "insurance" and other expenses.