CONSUMER watchdogs have warned about a chain letter circulating in the Hartlepool area.
The letter asks the recipient to send £1 to the people named in the letter, add their name to the list and then send out updated copies of the letter to 200 new people.
The chain letter says the recipient could receive £50,625 from as little as a 7.5 per cent response to their copies.
But many people who have contacted Hartlepool Trading Standards found the scheme had actually cost them more than it made.
Michael Welsh, trading standards manger, said: "The grim reality is that chain letters bring a lot of unhappiness and misery and we always urge anyone who gets a chain letter to throw it in the bin."
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