A PENSIONER is warning people about a mysterious gift offer from Vienna.

Fred Watson, 76, has so far received three flyers in the post from Friedrich Mueller Gift Distribution, registered to a PO box number in the Austrian capital, asking him to send £25.

In return, the letters invited him to choose one of four gifts a car, a new kitchen, a holiday in Bavaria or £3,750 in cash.

But the only telephone number given is for a £1.50-per-minute premium line that merely repeats the offer word for word.

The last letter was a large sheet of paper, and was almost threatening in tone: "Mr Watson, what seems to be the matter I beg your pardon but are you sure everything is alright?"

It added: "You see, Mr Watson, it just seems rather unbelievable to me.

"It's not even funny anymore."

Mr Watson, a retired British Rail worker from Gladstone Street, is married to Betty, 70.

The couple have five children eight grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

He believes he may have ended up on the company's mailing list because he often takes part in consumer surveys.

He has not sent any money, but contacted the Evening Advertiser with his suspicions.

He said: "I want to bring this to the public's attention because I am worried that a lot of older people might send off their money.

"My advice would be to send these things to a consumer association, and never send any money or give a credit card number.

"Nobody gives away gifts like this for nothing, but people do get caught just the same."

Attempts by the Evening Advertiser to get in touch with the source of the offer proved fruitless with no name registered with international directory inquiries.

Mr Watson's comments were echoed by Swindon's trading standards department.

Robert Taylour, group leader with Swindon's environmental services team, issues regular blanket warnings that if an offer seems to good to be true, it almost certainly is.

He said: "The best thing to do is put letters like this in the bin.

"We see all sorts of variations on this theme."