VIGILANT Caroline Paget is thankful that she didn't fall for an e-mail con. Mrs Paget, 26, of Devizes, was contacted by e-mail after she advertised her wedding dress for sale at £700 on a reputable website.

The e-mailer, who called himself Kenvin Williams, said a client in Britain owed him £3,900.

She was asked to process a cheque for that amount through her account and send the rest on to him via Western Union, an American postal service for transferring money.

She was told she could deduct the £700 for the wedding dress.

At this point Mrs Paget became suspicious. She asked Mr Williams to send her a cheque for £700, but when he failed to do so, she withdrew from the transaction.

Mrs Paget, who is training to be a GP, said: "The first e-mail from Kenvin Williams seemed reasonable although the spelling was atrocious.

"I thought, OK I'll go with it but when he mentioned paying more money through my account I was really wary. I had not heard of any of these type of scams, but I was immediately suspicious. I waited to see if he would send me the money for my dress and when he didn't I immediately ended contact with him."

Wiltshire police fraud squad officer DC Bob Carver warned about similar scams in his Gazette column.

He said: "The buyer will ask the seller to bank a cheque on their behalf, usually for thousands of pounds, then deduct the price of the item for sale and send the balance on to them, but the cheque is a dud. If the seller has sent on the item to the purchaser they will be left out of pocket."