READER Christine Mitton abandoned her job and left herself out of pocket in a bid to warn people of a home-working scam.

Like another Citizen reader, Christine, of Chapel Street, Colne, was taken in by an offer of a job addressing envelopes.

She said: "I didn't for one minute realise I was being involved in a scam, but when I read the story in the Citizen I was determined to find out."

Christine's work involved collecting stamped addressed envelopes sent to her by job hunters and sending them on to an address in the south of England.

She said: "I sent them £15 and as far as I knew I was like an agent and people who sent in their names and addresses would receive batches of envelopes to address."

To find out what was going on, Christine included her own name and address among envelopes she posted.

She said: "I couldn't believe it. Within a couple of days there was a letter telling me to put postcards up in shop windows and to collate stamped addressed envelopes for them.

"After seeing that I could not in all honesty carry on, and I want to apologise to people if they have been caused any upset.

"As soon as I found out what was going on I wrote to as many people as I could manage to contact.

"It cost me a fortune, and I didn't have a lot of money to start with as a one-parent family on the breadline.

"I've been conned, and it is not very nice. I couldn't do it to anyone else."

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