A VIGILANT Tullibody woman is alerting Wee County residents after conmen attempted to scam her with a fictitious six-figure lottery prize.

Local Margaret Galbraith was on her toes and could not be fooled, however, when a letter claiming to be from the People's Postcode Lottery said she won £385,000 – despite the fact she had never played.

The elderly woman explained to the Advertiser the message, which looked rather convincing, said all unclaimed lottery money was put into a pot and she was randomly selected as the winner from the electoral roll.

It is understood it was an attempt to dupe her into revealing her bank account details when claiming the non-existing prize – there were a range of numbers she was advised to call.

The Advertiser also understands that in some instances, people were asked to pay a five per cent commission to a claims company handling the money.

Margaret, who received the letter through the post sometime around last Tuesday - June 20, said: “I don't even play the lottery.

“Probably there are people that would maybe believe it. It was quite well laid out and explained how you were winning it.”

”It really looked real”, she added.

The woman wanted to share her story to raise awareness in the hopes people reading it will not be conned.

Margaret explained her daughter Linda has helped keeping her vigilant, “drumming” into her head to be sceptical.

She said: “I have had a scam before – it was with Talk Talk so my daughter preaches to me morning, noon and night: 'Don't believe everything'.”

And added: “It's hard to keep up with these scams, isn't it?”

Rachel Ruxton, head of communications at the People's Postcode Lottery, said the organisation is aware of attempts, but incidents where the public is affected “are rare”.

She said: "If you receive one of these letters, phone calls, SMS messages or emails, then we strongly advise the public to treat these communications as scams and they should be ignored.

"Legitimate lotteries, such as People's Postcode Lottery, will not under any circumstances request a payment in order to receive your 'winnings'.

"If you are at all suspicious, then contact our customer service team on 0808 1098 765.”