Donegal gardaí have called on members of the public to exercise some common sense in relation to the latest lottery scam.
Crime prevention officer Sgt Paul Wallace made the appeal after gardaí received numerous queries from people who received letters informing them they had won a lottery in Spain.
A letter purporting to have emanated from the International Lotto Commission Board in Spain informs recipients that they have won a share of a €13 million jackpot.
Sgt Wallace said they had received complaints from all over the county and he appealed to people to ignore such letters.
"This is an obvious attempt to extract money from unsuspecting members of the public and is the latest of many scams.People who receive letters or e-mails requesting their bank account details should simply ignore them and let their common sense prevail . . . These are obviously nothing other than scams."
Sgt Wallace also expressed frustration on behalf of the Garda in relation to a spate of recent thefts from unattended cars. "There is a similar problem in relation to thefts from cars as people are leaving too much stuff in their cars despite our appeals against such behaviour.
"This is causing particular problems for gardaí as these people [ thieves] are very hard to track down. People are attending Mass and wakes and are leaving far too much stuff in their cars and this makes easy pickings for these boys."