POLICE and trading standards officers are warning people of a con suggesting they are beneficiaries of a will.

Letters are believed to have gone out to thousands of Teessiders with the surname Adams from the Essex firm Temple Law.

They state that the recipient has been left money in a will, and ask them to ring a premium rate number with calls costing £1 a minute.

The caller is left hanging on as the charge mounts, only to discover they are not the person being sought.

The letter, which is marked private and confidential, contains an alleged case number and client reference along with a scrawled signature, but no name. In minute lettering at the foot of the page, it notifies the recipient of the call charge.

Acting Detective Sergeant Ray Savage, of Cleveland Police, warned people not to waste their money by responding. "No responsible body would ask you to reply and make your call on a premium rate line," he said.

"Delaying tactics will be employed to ensure you keep hanging on and it takes ten minutes to find out you are not the person they are allegedly looking for.

"These letters have circulated in the south of the country and now the mail shot is being concentrated up here."

As letters contain a tiny notice of call charges, they are not illegal.

Anyone who receives one is advised to contact their local trading standards office.