A TEIGNMOUTH business has been the target of an attempted postal scam for the second time this year.

In May we reported that Janet Longhurst, of Nightingale House care home in Landscore Close, had received an official-looking 'urgent notice' from a body called the Data Protection Enforcement Agency. It demanded that she paid £95 to register her business under the Data Protection Act 1998.

She was told that she had committed a criminal offence by failing to register, and was liable to a large fine.

In fact Mrs Longhurst did not need to register under the Act, and there is no such agency as the Data Protection Enforcement Agency.

Registrations under the Act cost only £35 and are handled directly by the Notification Department of the Office of the Information Commissioner at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Other businesses in Teignmouth, including the Blue Anchor Inn in Teign Street, also received scam letters at around the same time.

Now Mrs Longhurst has received an almost-identical demand from the enforcement manager at 'Data Protection Agency Services'. She was requested to send a cheque for £95, payable to 'D.P.A.' at Ferrars House, 94 Ferrars Road, Sheffield S9 1RY.

A very plausible-looking official pre-addressed brown envelope was enclosed for her reply.

Again, there is no such body as Data Protection Agency Services, and it looks as if the criminal brains behind the enterprise have not given up targeting businesses in South Devon.

Mrs Longhurst has again contacted Teignbridge MP Richard Younger-Ross, who has passed on all the correspondence to the Office of Fair Trading and Devon County Council's trading standards department.

Mrs Longhurst said that she had gone public because she did not want any other business to fall into an expensive trap.