TWO Wrexham addresses were at the centre of an elbarorate email scam.

About 40 people on York man Geoff Nicholls’ electronic contacts book were startled to receive an email from him saying he had been mugged at gunpoint during a trip to Wales and needed money.

It said he had hurt his right hand and that all his cash, credit cards and phone had been stolen.

The email also urged them to send him money to settle an oustanding hotel bill, asking them to wire it to him through Western Union at the Premier Inn Wrexham.

The postcode given for the hotel in the e-mail was not correct although it does relate to another part of Wrexham.

Luckily it did not take Mr Nicholls, a retired public relations executive, long to work out that the whole thing was a con and he believes that both Wrexham references were made up at random.

He immediately got in touch with everyone on his email address book and reassured them he was fine and that they should send no money as he did not need any help.

The next day he found his email account password had been changed and he couldn’t get in to it.

He has since changed all his details and said: “It was obviously a con as I have never even been to Wrexham.

“No-one was taken in by it but I am concerned that if others are being targeted in the same way, someone would be fooled and might send money to the scammers.”

A spokesman for North Wales Police said it was aware of the incident and that there had been two or three similar cases across the force area.

She added: “We would advise people not to disclose their security details.”

A spokesperson for Premier Inn said: “The staff at Premier Inn Wrexham have been made aware of the email scam which has taken place but can confirm that this has nothing to do with the hotel.”