A PENSIONER from Warwickshire has been conned out of his life savings after being tricked by a "sinister" international money scam.

The 92-year-old Leamington man, who has not been identified, was targeted following the death of his wife and unwittingly helped fraudsters to pocket thousands of pounds.

He is one of 22 elderly people across the UK who collectively handed over £350,000 in the prize draw scam which tricked vulnerable people into acting as money mules, consu mer watchdog the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has warned.

Peter Nicholls, ser vice manager at Warwickshire Trading Sta ndards, said more people could have been targeted but said they may be too embarrassed to come forward. He said: "We are only aware of one local case at the moment but some people are quite embarrassed about becoming victims and prefer to keep it to themselves. We would urge people to be sceptical. Genuine lotteries never require any payment before releasing prizes."

The fraud involved people being telephoned and told they had won an international sweepstake or prize draw worth up to £500,000.

But they were told that in order to claim their winnings, they had to pay refundable taxes and insurance fees, and they were told to send the cash by money transfer to Canada.

The victims were then later informed that their prize had arrived at a UK airport, but that further sums of money were required to release it.

They were instructed to send personal cheques, often for thousands of pounds, to UK "agents", who were typically other victims of the fraud. The victims who received the cheques had often exhausted their life savings, and were told that the money was from sponsors to help them pay the release fees for their prize.

They were told to bank the cheque and transfer the money overseas, and in doing so they were inadvertently acting as money mules, helping the fraudsters to launder the money.

Some victims of the scam, which was investigated by the City of Westminster Trading Standards Service and the police, lost more than £50,000.