PEOPLE in South Lakeland are being warned not to fall victim to a postal scam.

The alert comes after Cumbria County Council's Department of Trading Standards was contacted by three people, who had cards pushed through their letterbox from a company called Parcel Plus.

The card gives the impression that the Post Office has received a parcel for them overseas and the householder has to ring a number to release it.

But Parcel Plus is not associated with the Royal Mail. Phil Ashcroft, Head of Cumbria trading Standards said: "The card looks very official and could easily be mistaken as coming from the Post Office. I very much expect that the value of the parcel will be less than the cost of the phone call."

Cumbria County Council's Community Safety Spokesman, Jack Richardson said:"To call this premium rate telephone number costs £1.50 a minute and the likelihood is that the duration of the call will be several minutes. My advice to anyone receiving this card is to throw it away."