MODERN communication systems have opened up a whole new world to crooks eager to con people into parting with their money.

Almost everyone with a fax machine or email account will have received letters detailing schemes which claim to make you fantastic 'guaranteed' profits.

All they need, of course, is for you to let them have some of your money first!

Another popular fiddle involves invoicing businesses with bills for services they have not had and are unlikely to ever receive.

The bills, and the letter accompanying them, look official and even slightly threatening on the basis that they will be paid without question to avoid any aggravation.

Small businesses are the favoured target and it's an indictment of the red tape faced by people running them that many of these official-looking demands are paid without question.

The latest, which has provoked unanimous warnings from Tory and Labour East Lancashire MPs, involves a letter asking for £95 which is needed for the company to comply with the "Data Protection Register" and asking for cheques to be made out to the "DPA" and sent to a Sheffield address.

The operation has nothing to do with the Data Protection Agency and, as the MPs warn, no one should pay any bills unless they have double checked their authenticity.