BUSINESSES face being duped out of a large cash sum by a cleverly worded circular that continues to do the rounds, despite warnings from Cumbria Trading Standards.

The Cumbria County Council department re-issued its "take care" advice this week after a Kendal businessman was on the verge of parting with £95 after receiving a letter from an organisation calling itself Data Protection Agency Services.

Fortunately Adam Rubin-stein, a partner with a small mail order business called Healthlines, on Sedbergh Road, made some last minute checks to satisfy himself that the official looking document was not bogus and discovered that it was.

The letter claimed to be a "final notice" and made out that Healthlines had not submitted Notification to the Information Commissioner in accordance with the 1998 Data Protection Act. It claimed that failure to do so was a criminal offence and offenders face a £5,000 fine.

Recipients of the letter are urged to complete and return a form and letter to a Fleetwood address enclosing a cheque for £95.

"I had filled out my cheque and was about to send it back," said Mr Rubinstein. "There was not a telephone number on the form so I rang directory inquiries and was told Data Protection Agency Services was not listed.

"I then contacted the Data Protection Commission and they told me that they had had quite a few problems with this and advised me to contact my local trading standards department."

Pat Thomas, of Cumbria Trading Standards, said:"This letter was going out a number of months ago because we were flooded with inquiries from local businesses. It seems to have resurrected itself."

February 7, 2003 11:00