PAY off my debts. Win £250,000. I could be sitting pretty, it said. All I had to do to gain this bounty was to scratch off the silver panels to find three matching symbols.

Anything from that £250,000 to a digital camera would follow - and, according to what the mysterious panels revealed, I was due for not one, but two, of these "rewards".

To find out how lucky I was, I had only to ring up and each reward was guaranteed to have a value "substantially more than the cost of the call".

I may have been around so long that I'm as wrinkly as a savoy cabbage, but I'm nowhere near as green.

Free lunches don't exist, never mind free digital cameras which, nowadays, can cost less than a decent lunch anyway, and maybe even less than a call to an 09 phone number plus (and here's the catch) the fee generally demanded to cover the "handling" of the reward.

This generous offer must have been made to thousands, as it fell out of a magazine.

Given that I understand the hit-rate of a personally-addressed mail shot is thought good at 4pc, it should be even less for this scatter-gun approach.

Sadly, I fear it may not be, and such offers fall out of magazines every week.

Some also arrive by post or telephone and may offer cruises or holidays, but with such tight conditions that you're unlikely ever to fulfil them and jet off.

In spite of umpteen stories of victims, often elderly, paying out vast amounts over the years, in the hope of scooping the biggie, and of those who find their "free" holiday ends up costing more than a package bargain, people still fall for these come-ons.

They must do, or the perpetrators would stop. They're in it for the money, not because they like giving presents.

Remember the adage which is as relevant to these scams as to the financial schemes to which it generally applies: "If it seems too good to be true, it probably is." Myself, I'd take the "probably" out of that sentence.

If you must buy a daydream, buy a lottery ticket. People do win proper jackpots on that; slightly more often, they win a tenner.

At worst, you lose a quid, less than the cost of that 09-numbered phone call.

Better still, save up in a pot pig until you've got enough - £100 - for some Premium Bonds as, that way, you can get your stake back if the excitement of the monthly draw palls.

And, as people always ask, to stop junk mail, write to The Mailing Preference Service, Freepost LON20771, London W1E OZT, or register your details on-line at www.mpsonline.org.uk. To stop unsolicited phone calls, ring 0845 070 0707.

There is also now a service to stop junk mail addressed to someone who has recently died, find it on www.the-bereavement-register.org.uk.