DETECTIVES are warning about foreign lottery scams.

Durham Police have been contacted by people who have been telephoned by purported Canadian lottery corporations which say they have won.

The callers say that before a payout can be made, they have to pay one per cent of the sum by wire transfer.

Durham Police's economic crime unit, formerly the fraud squad, says the details provided by the callers are false and that alleged lottery winners never see any money.

Another scam being run on similar lines involves an alleged European lottery that tempts people to pay for a £1m jackpot that does not exist.

Detective Inspector Colin Gibson, of the unit, said: "The police advice is that if a scheme or an offer looks too good to be true then it almost certainly is.

"To win a lottery you need to have entered beforehand and we strongly advise people not to respond to these offers or to send any money for supposed collection or administration fees.''

The unit is receiving details of a long-running fraud from West Africa in which people are sent letters, e-mails or faxes asking them to reveal bank account details.

They are offered a percentage of large sums of money, sometimes running into millions of pounds, that would be temporarily transferred to their account.

The correspondence asks people to pay money up front to facilitate the transfer.

Police say anyone who receives the offer should inform their local police station.